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SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 



School Management 

PEACTICAL SUGGESTIONS CONCEENING 

THE CONDUCT AND LIFE OF 

THE SCHOOL 



BY 



SAMUEL T. BUTTON 

PROFESSOR OP SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN TEACHERS' COLLEGE, COLUMBIA 

UNTVERSITT, AND SUPERINTENDENT" OP THE COLLEGE SCHOOLS 

AUTHOR 01" "SOCIAL PHASES OP EDUCATION" 



NEW YOEK 

CHAELES SCEIBNEE'S SONS 

1903 



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•('(-!;- ' .: 'fAVJY Or 


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Two Cowc* RsoeiveD 


^K3V ^ 1903 




1 / cory B., 



Copyright, 1903, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMMNV 

NEW YORK 



^0 

THOSE PRIN^CIPALS, TEACHERS, AKD 
STUDENTS OF EDUCATIOl^ WITH WHOM 
I HAVE WORKED IN" THE PAST, THIS 
BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 



I 



PREFACE 

The purpose of this volume is to state in as concise 
and definite form as possible the problems of school 
management, and to make helpful suggestions looking 
to their solution. 

This work is not composed of lectures, but is a special 
treatment designed to aid teachers in all kinds of schools, 
as well as students of education. The topics treated 
comprise a portion only of the field covered by the au- 
thor in his courses at Columbia University. A later 
volume will deal with school administration in its his- 
torical, political, economic, and supervisory aspects. 

The life of the teacher is too crowded and the issues 
of practical education too serious to warrant the use of 
unnecessarily technical or abstruse terms. Whatever 
defects this book may have, it is believed that every 
sentence is so clear and distinct that its meaning can be 
readily understood. 

The author acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. 
Jesse D. Burks, Principal of the Training School, Pat- 
erson, N. J., for substantial assistance in the prepara- 
tion of this volume. Thanks are also due to Miss Mary 
McSkimmon and Mr. John C. Packard of Brookline, 
Mass., and Miss Caroline W. Hotchkiss of the Teach- 
ers College, New York, for outlines of lessons contained 
in the Appendix. 



CONTENTS 



I. INTRODUCTORY— THE NA.TURE AND SCOPE OF 
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT: 

(1) Changed Conception of the School 

(2) The School is Complex . . 

(3) Changes in its Structure 

(4) The New School Government 

(5) The School Bears Kelations 

Community 

(6) Value of Public Sentiment . 

(7) New Ideals of Efficiency 

(8) Factory Methods not Possible 

(9) The Modern Teacher . . . 
(10) Uniformity not Desirable 



to 



the 



PAGE 

3 
4 
5 
6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 



II. THE TEACHER: 

(1) The Power of Personality ' , . . 

(2) Importance of Good Health . . 

(3) Duties Out of School 

(4) Intellectual Fitness of the Teacher 

(5) Moral Qualities Needed .... 

(6) Sincerity 

(7) Honesty 



16 
17 
21 
22 
22 
23 
24 



X Contents 

II. THE TEACHEK (Continued): 



PAGE 



(8) The Teacher as a Social Force . . 25 

(9) Temperament 27 

(10) The Selection of Teachers .... 27 

(11) Methods of Certificating ..... 29 

(12) Terms of Probation 30 



III. THE GROWTH OF THE TEACHER: 

(1) Cultivate the Social Life 

(2) Seek Desirable Friendships 

(3) Read Many Books . . . 

(4) Visit the Best Schools . 

(5) Institutes and Conventions 

(6) Teachers' Meetings . . . 

(7) Travel as a Means of Growth 

(8) Freedom Facilitates Growth 



33 
34 
34 

37 
40 
42 
45 
46 



IV. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS: 

(1) The School Site and Grounds ... 49 

(2) The School Building ...... 51 

(3) The School-room 52 

(4) Seating ' 53 

(5) Lighting .54 

(6) Cloak-rooms .55 

(7) Corridors 55 

(8) Staircases 56 

(9) Other Features 56 

(10) Heating and Ventilation 57 



Contents xl 

V. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS (Continued): 

PAGE 

(1) Methods of Heating and Ventilation . 61 

(2) Janitor Service 64 

(3) General Sanitation and Hygiene . . 67 

(4) General Suggestions 70 

,VI. ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL: 

(1) Distribution of Authority .... 74 

(2) Meetings of Principals 76 

(3) Grading of Pupils 77 

(4) The Promotion of Pupils , ... 84 

VII. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL: 

(1) The Power of Personality .... 86 

(2) Plan with Care .87 

(3) Act with Courage 88 

(4) Be Kind and Sympathetic .... 89 

(5) The School Virtues 89 

(6) Self-control and Self-government . . 92 

(7) The School City Plan 93 

(8) Democracy and Law 94 

(9) The Incorrigible 95 

(10) Character the End of Discipline . . 96 

'VIII. SCHOOL INCENTIVES: 

(1) Artificial and Objectionable Incentives 100 

(2) Natural and Worthy Incentives . . 105 



xii Contents 

IX. THE CURRICULUM: 



PAGE 



(1) Making the Cnrriculum Ill 

(2) Using the Curriculum 118 

X. THE DAILY PROGRAMME: 

(1) The Programme a Cross-section of the 

School 125 

(2) The Opening of School . . . . .126 

(3) The Length of Sessions 127 

(4) The Number of Classes 129 

(5) Study, Eecitation, and Recreation . 130 

(6) Work and Fatigue 131 

(7) Gymnastics and Games . . . . . 133 

(8) Out-of-door Games 136 

(9) School-room Games 137 

(10) The Automatic Element 137 

(11) Planning and Adaptation .... 138 

XI. THE RECITATION: 

(1) The Doctrine of Interest 141 

(2) Preparation by Teacher . . . , . 144 

(3) Plans of Lessons 146 

(4) Method ........... 147 

(5) Teaching Devices ....... 149 

(6) Illustrative Material ....... 150 

(7) The Assignment of Lessons .... 151 

(8) Preparation by Pupils 152 



Contents xiii 

XII. THE KECITATION (Continued) : 

PAGE 

(1) The Goal of Instrnction 154 

(2) The Problem of Method . . « . . 156 

(3) Apperception ......... 158 

(4) Summary of Principles 160 

(5) Herbart's Five Formal Steps . . .161 

XIII. TRAINING PUPILS TO STUDY: 

(1) Some Difficulties in Learning to Study 168 

(2) Methods of Securing Application and 

Concentration 170 

XIV. REVIEWS AND EXAMINATIONS: 

(1) The Value of Thoroughness . . .175 

(2) Oral and Written Tests 176 

(3) Educative Examinations . . . . .178 

(4) Advantages to Pupils 179 

(5) Advantages to the Teacher .... 180 

(6) Suggestions to Teachers 181 

XV. SCHOOL GARDENS, PLAYGROUNDS, AND VACA- 
TION SCHOOLS: 

(1) School Gardens 187 

(2) Educative Factors 187 

(3) Equipment 189 

(4) Playgrounds and Play-centres . . . 189 

(5) Keasons for Vacation Schools . . .192 

(6) Aims 193 

(7) Methods 193 

(8) Results 195 



xiv Contents 

XVI. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 

(1) The School and the Church . 

(2) The School and the Home . , 

(3) The School and the Library 

(4) The School and the Museum . 

(5) The School and the Newspaper 

(6) The School and Industry . . 

(7) The School and Government 



200 
201 
204 
206 
207 
208 
211 



XVII. THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE: 

(1) Uniform Practice not Desirable . . 215 

(2) The Principle of School Extension . 216 

(3) Free Lectures 217 

(4) Playgrounds 218 

(6) Parents' Associations 218 

(6) Education Societies 219 

(7) School Decoration 223 

XVIII. AFFILIATED INTERESTS: 

(1) Athletics 226 

(2) Literary Societies 228 

(3) The School Paper 230 

(4) Musical Clubs 231 

(5) The Summer Camp 232 

(6) The Alumni Association 232 

XIX. SUPERVISION: 

(1) The Superintendent . 235 

(2) Need of a Definite Policy , . „ . 235 



Contents xv 

XIX. SUPERVISION (Continued) : 



PAGE 



(3) Relation to the School-Board . .236 

(4) Relation to the Community . . .237 

(5) Relation to Principals and Teacxitrs . 238 

(6) The Principal .241 

(7) The Conclusion of the Whole Matter 244 

APPENDIX 

Outlines of Lessons 249 

Bibliography 276 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTORY 

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF SCHOOL 

MANAGEMENT 

In a land where education holds a supreme place in 
the ideals and aspirations of the people the work of 
the school becomes of intrinsic importance. The spirit 
in which the teacher works and the knowledge and skill 
he employs are of infinite concern, not only to himseK 
but to those for whom he labors. 

School management, broadly speaking, relates to the 
conditions affecting the school, as well as to everything 
that takes place there. Physical and social conditions, 
the personality and equipment of the teacher, the ideals 
and standards of the school, and the means and meth- 
ods employed in their accomplishment are all to be 
considered. Account must be taken also of those 
human relations, so vital and imminent, which give to 
the problems of school training their professional char- 
acter and dignity. 

1. — Changed Conception of the School. 

It must be confessed that some of the books bear- 
ing the title of " School Management," written two or 
three decades ago, seem inadequate and out of date. It 

3 



4 School Management 

is no fault of their authors that they are so, for they 
were distinguished teachers in their time. Many of the 
principles they laid down are universal and are as sound 
to-day as ever, but marvellous changes have taken place 
in a quarter of a century, and the conduct of the modem 
school must be treated in the light of those changes. Is 
there a single profession the members of which can 
be guided by the rules and practices of twenty-five years 
ago ? There are underlying every profession and voca- 
tion certain broad general truths which we must not 
discard, but in the application of those truths we have 
to think of modern needs and modern conditions. The 
doctor, the clergyman, the lawyer, the merchant, the 
banker, and the manufacturer must hew closely to a 
line, and that line must be the latest discovery and the 
finest possible adaptation of means to end. It is the 
age of the specialist and the inventor. Multitudes are 
engaged in tireless investigation and research. No 
sooner is new truth brought to light than it must be 
utilized in the department to which it belongs. Who- 
ever follows the methods of the past, instead of the 
present, is sure to meet with catastrophe ; the physi- 
cian loses his patients, the lawyer his clients, the 
preacher his congregation, and the merchant his cus- 
tomers. 

2. — The School is Complex. 

Education is also manifold in its relations, and must 
take account of all forms of progress, and invoke the 
aid of every discovery in the realm of man and nat- 
ure. The subject of school management, therefore, 
can no longer be restricted to rules and devices more 



Introductory 5 

or less mechanical and arbitrary, but must rather take 
a comprehensive view of human development in the 
whole range of its possibilities. In the school of to-day 
feeling and sentiment are to be cultivated no less than 
thought and expression. Spontaneous self-directed 
conduct is more important than passive obedience. 
There must be abounding interest and alertness, even if 
some portion of knowledge is sacrificed. Character is 
to be recognized and respected, although the youth may 
not be able to pass an examination in the higher mathe- 
matics. Honest effort is to be held at a high valuation, 
and honesty in the smallest details of school work is to 
be preferred to mere scholarship. 

3. — Changes in its Structure. 

But very definite changes have been taking place in 
the structure of the school itself. Nearly every State in 
the Union has passed laws to protect the child from 
labor, and requiring his attendance at school. Wher- 
ever there is backwardness in this direction a storm of 
protest is raised, either from within or from without. 

Physical and manual training have been adopted not 
as incidental forms of amusement but as fundamental 
means of development. Various kinds of handwork are 
being organized to-day, not only as a means of securing 
executive abiKty and manual skill, but in order that 
youth may acquire an insight into the elements of in- 
dustry, and may be acquainted with household arts and 
economics. 

Nature study, with all its possibility of out-of-door life 
and intimate knowledge of plants, birds, animals, soil, 



6 School Management 

and climate, has assumed an important place. With it 
has come the school-garden, bringing a new interest in 
agriculture to the city child, affording opportunity for 
the applications of simple chemistry and physics, a 
knowledge of the economic questions involved, a sense 
of the dignity of labor, and the meaning of social co- 
operation. 

Out of biology and child study has grown a new 
gospel of the physical nature of the child and the 
hygiene of study and play. Physical education is no 
longer a matter of formal drill, but is related to the whole 
regimen of the child — his food, dress, bathing, sleep, 
his tasks, and his games. 

4. — The Neio School Government. 

The whole theory of school government has changed. 
While law and order are still enthroned in the school, 
the teacher is no longer the sole interpreter of law and 
the arbitrary dispenser of justice. Both teacher and 
pupil are members of a social community, whose wel- 
fare and happiness are the dominant aims of all the 
members, where the teacher is loved and respected ac- 
cording as he loves and respects his pupils. An offence 
is regarded as committed against the community rather 
than against the teacher, and the offender is treated with 
such good sense and discrimination as to awaken sin- 
cere regret on his part, and to strengthen the bonds of 
good feeling and high purpose among all the members 
of the school circle. Physical punishment may some- 
times be necessary, but it is the merest makeshift in any 
attempt to reach the higher nature and summon the 



Introductory 7 

will to resolute well-doing. Penal reform to-day is not 
satisfied until the treatment of the criminal is of such 
a character as to arouse his better nature and to make 
him hope for the opportunity of becoming a self-respect- 
ing and self -con trolled person. How much more should 
the modern school, in dealing with those whose minds 
are sensitive and impressible, be free of harshness and 
severity. School management has to do with character 
in the making, and no teacher will long be tolerated who 
does not take the pupil into his confidence and make 
him an active participant in the task of preserving law 
and order. 

5. — The School Bears Relations to the Community. 

As the government of a nation sustains relations with 
other powers, makes treaties with them, and establishes 
relations of intercourse and co-operation, so the author- 
ities of the school and its teachers have a sphere of in- 
fluence and effort outside of the school-room. The 
children whom they teach do not belong to the school 
exclusively, but to the home, the church, and society as 
well. The school cannot be regarded as something 
apart from them, but rather as their closest ally. One 
of the teacher's first duties is to know the parents of his 
pupils and to consult with them freely regarding all 
their interests. There should be a sort of compact be- 
tween the teacher and every parent, whereby it is agreed 
that all differences shall be settled by mutual conference, 
and that no misunderstanding shall be permitted to 
exist. While the teacher may not be able to visit the 
home often, he may arrange for an occasional visit to 



8 School Management 

the school by some representative of the home. The 
cordiality and sympathy thus established between the 
home and school are a vital element in school manage- 
ment. 

Moreover, there are many ways in which the school 
stands related to the larger life of the community, which 
are of no little importance. The proper use of the 
public library and its reading-rooms, the enjoyment of 
public parks and playgrounds, respect for property, 
public and private, conduct of pupils on the street and 
in public places — all these things must be kept in mind 
by the teacher and school officers, in order that the 
school may do its part in securing a quiet neighborhood 
and those pleasant relations which make citizenship self- 
respecting and agreeable. 

6. — Value of Public Sentiment, 

As every teacher respects his profession and desires 
to have it grow in the estimation of the people, he will 
spare no pains in educating his patrons and acquaint- 
ances to the highest ideals, in order that there may be 
a public sentiment strong and effective, and favorable 
to the most progressive measures. It is remarkable 
how a corps of teachers with common aims and ideals, 
who are loyal to each other and the cause which they 
are serving, can indoctrinate an entire community, and 
secure a generous and sympathetic attitude. 

Thus it is seen that the management of the modern 
school has a wide field of activity, and cannot be blind 
to any interest belonging to the moral and social wel- 
fare of the community. Its routine is important, and 



Introductory 9 

its machinery must be well oiled and cared for, but the 
teacher must have a horizon reaching far beyond the 
school-room, and must work shoulder to shoulder with 
others who are seeking a better public life. As the 
school of to-day seeks the most symmetrical growth of 
the individual, so that in body, mind, and spirit he is 
fully alive and alert, professional freedom must be 
granted the teacher, so that he may be governed by in- 
sight and judgment rather than by inflexible rules. 



7. — New Ideals of Efficiency. 

As the function of the school has been enlarged in 
recent years, so that its conduct presents many new and 
complex problems, so new standards of efficiency must 
be recognized. It is interesting to study the organiza- 
tion of a great commercial or industrial business and 
see what suggestion we may get to help us in the 
school. In the factory we find everything reduced to 
system ; each department has its head, who is held re- 
sponsible for every bit of material used. He has to 
see that nothing is wasted, that the machinery is kept 
in perfect order, that the work done is carefully tested. 
He records the time given by the employees, and any 
failure in duty or any inferiority of workmanship is re- 
ported to the head of the establishment. We see that 
here the element of system is of transcendent impor- 
tance. The margin of profit is close, and it is only by 
the most rigid care and economy in the use of time and 
materials that there is any profit whatever. In several 
lines of manufacturing the net earnings come from cer- 
tain by-products. 



10 School Management 

The value of system in the schools cannot be mini- 
mized ; at the same time the school is not a factory, 
and the foreman in the cotton mills, according to the 
modern standards, would make a poor schoolmaster. 
In the factory, attention is riveted upon material things, 
their qualities, the processes to which they are subject- 
ed, and the uses to which they are to be put. In the 
school the emphasis is laid upon the things which are 
moral and spiritual. The factory system applied to a 
school, while presenting an attractive exterior, is deaden- 
ing as regards those finer products of feeling, taste, in- 
terest, and ambition which the school ought to nurture. 
It is distressing to see a schoolmaster to-day exhibit- 
ing his school to visitors in their concerted movements 
of sitting, rising, marching, and reciting, as though such 
results of military drill were of very great moment. 
While certain movements of the school may well be 
carried on with promptness and precision, they are but 
a poor test of the real efficiency of the master or 
teacher. 

8. — Factory Methods not Possible. 

In the factory a record is kept of the piece-work 
accomplished by the several operatives. Here we have 
a kind of marking system which determines the amount 
of compensation the workers are to receive. This is 
a just and equitable arrangement; each one is paid 
for the work he does. He has no ground for dissatis- 
faction if he fails to receive as much as his neighbor ; 
the result, being based upon definite measurement of 
what is produced, determines the reward with justice 
and impartiality. But how is it in the school ? Can 



Introductory 11 

the efforts or even the accomplishments of the pupils 
be reduced to piece-work ? Can credit for work at- 
tempted or performed be assigned with anything like 
the precision that is possible in the factory? If we 
employ a rigid marking system to determine the stand- 
ing of our pupils, are we not likely to ignore those mani- 
fold fruits of the spirit and of the imagination which 
are the most precious flowers of education and culture ? 
Are we not forced to say that the ideals of efficiency of 
the truly modern school are greatly changed since the 
time when mere system and uniformity were dominant 
aims? If this statement seems revolutionary at first, 
let it be considered in all its bearings before judgment 
is rendered. Certain it is, that many teachers and edu- 
cators, if they must pursue the methods of the factory, 
would prefer to go into manufacturing, where the emolu- 
ments are usually greater than in teaching. 

9. — The Modern Teacher, 

Another field we have to explore is the life and growth 
of the teacher. He who manages the school must first 
manage himself. He must be sane and healthy. His 
outlook upon life must be hopeful. When we come to 
discuss the means of professional and personal growth 
of the teacher, we shall find that in his need of general 
culture and breadth of view he is not unlike men in 
other professions. New ideals confront us, not merely 
because the school must be a better school than for- 
merly, but because it is possible to live a richer life, and 
draw from many more sources of nourishment and in- 
spiration. Cheap books and magazines, post-office, and 



12 School Management 

the travelling library, as well as ease of travel, bring the 
teacher into closer touch with his fellow-men, and give 
him superior opportunities of growth. 

No longer is the schoolmaster caricatured in litera- 
ture, and made the butt of ridicule; no longer is he a 
social cipher. On the contrary, he is in the ascendant 
to-day, for he is believed to hold a strategic position and 
to set the pace for social and educational work. We 
must also carry our investigation into those means and 
materials which constitute the curriculum of the school. 
The great change to be noted here is that the require- 
ments in subject-matter are more qualitative and less 
quantitative. This remark applies both to recitations 
and examinations. The spirit with which the child 
does his work and the interest with which he regards it 
are acknowledged to be of more account than any fixed 
amount of acquisition. Superintendents of schools are 
not infallible, and are often more insistent upon the 
letter that killeth than upon the spirit that maketh 
alive. The individual teacher is comparatively helpless 
in the pursuit of high ideals, provided he is attached to 
a system which is unmindful of what those ideals de- 
mand. 

10. — Uniformity not Desirable, 

The best course of study is one which springs from 
the good judgment and experience of the teachers, and 
hence has their entire approval ; even then there should 
be permitted large freedom in its application. It may 
not be wise for the different schools of the town to do 
exactly the same work either in kind or amount. The 
teacher often finds one class less capable than another, 



Introductory 13 

and the situation becomes painful when the supervisor 
comes in with his measuring-rod and expresses dissat- 
isfaction with the result. Hence it is that the most 
current conception of an efficient supervisor or superin- 
tendent is that of one who claims freedom for himself 
and grants it to others ; who believes in flexibility, and 
is ready to commend the teacher who, in respect to the 
class and to the individual members of the class, is able 
to differentiate upon the basis of capacity and ability. 

When we come to devote several chapters to teaching 
and recitation it would seem that we are entering a field 
where there is little new and where we can follow only 
well-beaten paths. There is some force in this, and if 
we could only fully possess ourselves of the spirit and 
method of a Socrates or an Arnold, we would doubtless 
become eminent in our profession. But the greatest 
and most successful teachers have not become so by 
imitation. That is only one factor and one less impor- 
tant than others. Thorough scholarship, vigorous per- 
sonality, profound sympathy, and tactful efficiency all 
enter into teaching and transcend in importance any 
particular method. The teacher of to-day must have a 
certain all-roundedness possessed by few of those of the 
past, however great they were. The doctrines of self- 
activity and the interdependence of the motor powers 
and brain-centres have well-nigh revolutionized all teach- 
ing. It is said that a man receiving a salary of $50,000 
a year said, not long since: "I am paid this annual 
stipend for the mistakes I do not make." In other 
words, his value consisted largely in what he refrained 
from doing. Is not this in accord with the idea that the 
modern teacher is skilful according as he refrains from 



14 School Management 

doing what his pupils can do for themselves. If we fully 
accept this suggestion we shall find in our study of this 
important department of school management the press- 
ing need of a new set of cautions and precepts. Our 
most serious attention is directed to the child rather 
than to the subject-matter. Through an intimate ac- 
quaintance with his nature and his needs the teacher is 
able to supply the right nutrition at the right time. 

In the chapters which follow we have to discuss the 
programme, incentives used in the school, the nature and 
method of the recitation, the functions of apperception 
and interest, and the five formal steps. Practical illus- 
trations in the organization of subjects for teaching will 
be given. Here, as in the methods of training pupils 
to study, plans for examinations, and methods of pro- 
motion, we are not obliged to follow beaten paths. The 
school is a growing institution, and adopts new forms 
and practices according as pedagogical insight is given 
free play. 

The school and community are inseparable forces, 
and our labor will not be complete until we have 
brought to light all those relationships, so subtle and 
influential, which, if rightly regarded, bring satisfaction 
and happiness to all concerned. 

In all that follows we prefer to avoid that dogmatic 
form of statement which results in a form of text not 
unlike the ten commandments or the sayings of Poor 
Eichard. Paradoxical as it may seem, many things are 
true to-day that may not be true to-morrow. We use 
the best light we have and constantly seek for more. 
In the days of wireless telegraphy and the air-ship it 
pays to be expectant. 



Introductory 15 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. The scope of school management. 

2. What social changes have affected the school ? 

3. New moral aims. 

4. New studies. A recognition of the physical and psychical 
nature of the child. 

5. The relation of teacher and parent. 

6. Why must the school help the community? 

7. Distinguish between the methods of the factory and those of 
the school. 

S. New opportunities for the teacher. 



CHAPTER II 

THE TEACHER 

The teacher is the dominant force in every school. 
Hence the questions, what the teacher should be, and 
how he should attain the highest usefulness, are among 
the first we have to consider. The skilled superin- 
tendent shows his sagacity in nothing so much as in 
the selection of teachers. All intending to enter the 
profession, as well as those duly installed in it, may 
well try to see themselves as others see them. There 
are many steps in the ladder which lead from the low- 
salaried places in the smaller communities to those 
commanding positions in educational work which both 
men and women may attain. 

1. — The Power of Personality, 

Every young person should realize that the greatest 
factor in his success is his own personal charm and 
ability. If, as is often the case, he is not rated as high 
as he thinks he deserves, he must look for some weak- 
ness or limitation in himself, of which he has perhaps 
hitherto been unconscious. 

The achievements of man or woman can only be 
understood by taking into account the personal factor. 
This is especially true in teaching ; in fact, it can be Md 

16 



The Teacher 17 

down as one of those pedagogic proverbs that are likely 
to endure. The teacher makes the school because his 
presence, his sympathy, his sincere interest and helpful- 
ness are ever operating upon his pupils. He draws 
them to himself according as he possesses magnetic 
power. Can this ability to attract, to hold, and to in- 
spire pupils be acquired ? If it can, there are abundant 
reasons for beginning our treatment of school manage- 
ment with a kind of character study. We may thus be 
able to define the qualities belonging to the successful 
teacher so clearly as to make ambitious beginners eager 
to possess them. 

2. — Importance of Good Health. 

The teacher should be well and strong. He needs 
for his work the joy in life that goes with a sound body, 
trained to perform every function in a perfect manner. 
The school should never be a hospital for weak or dis- 
eased people. It is bad for the pupils, and they are 
the chief concern. A teacher whose health is under- 
mined is almost sure to grow worse and to become a 
victim of those conditions which often tempt us to 
undertake what we should not. Physical examinations 
for teachers are quite as desirable as any other, and are 
likely in time to be universally required. 

Poor health in the teacher often implies impairment 
of the nervous system and a lack of self-control and re- 
pose of manner, which are absolutely fatal to the best 
interests of the school. The person whose digestion is 
bad, who cannot sleep well, or who for any cause is 
unable to exercise in the open air, seldom has a sweet 



18 School Management 

temper or calm judgment. Sucli teachers unwittingly 
arouse antagonisms in their pupils which are reflected 
at home, and the relations between the home and the 
school become anything but agreeable. I have known 
of more than one case where the teacher's health was so 
delicate as to require a much higher temperature in the 
room than was good for the pupils, or was favorable for 
the cheerful performance of their work. This portion 
of the subject naturally addresses itself not only to 
teachers themselves but to school authorities who permit 
such a state of things to exist. However hard it may 
be for weak, diseased, or disabled teachers to relin- 
quish their positions, I believe in the end they will be 
gainers rather than losers. A case is recalled where a 
teacher in poor health showed a morbid unwillingness 
to resign, but was finally persuaded to do so. While 
for some time she maintained an air of bitterness toward 
the superintendent, after having regained her health, 
and finding a new joy in life, she came and thanked him 
for what he had done. 

But, turning from this phase of the subject to one 
which is more hopeful and constructive, let it be under- 
stood that, in the vast number of cases, the teacher, as 
far as health is concerned, is master of his own destiny. 
The first years of teaching are often a crucial test of a 
young person's good sense and foresightedness. It is 
then that he is laying the foundations of his career. 
Health and vigor are his chief assets ; even scholarship 
and professional training avail little unless accompanied 
by physical stamina. Let us try to formulate this 
matter in a few suggestions that are comprehensive and 
universal. 



The Teacher 19 

1. The teacher needs the comforts of a good home. 
This should include a quiet, sunny room, which is well 
warmed in winter, so that preparation for each day's 
work may be made under the best possible conditions ; 
and, in passing, it should be said that thorough prep- 
aration for daily work is distinctly a health precaution. 
It gives satisfaction and confidence, prevents worry, and 
leads to conscious success. 

2. The teacher needs also nutritious, appetizing food 
served at regular hours. Intemperance and irregu- 
larities of all kinds are inconsistent with those stand- 
ards of conduct and character which should govern the 
teacher of youth. The frequent violations of this prin- 
ciple are a stain on the profession. Persistent selfish 
indulgence leaves its mark upon many countenances and 
leads to impaired usefulness and lessened respect in the 
community. 

3. The teacher cannot afford habitually to deprive 
himself of necessary sleep, even for the sake of study or 
social pleasure. As long as he was a student solely, he 
could burn the midnight oil without harming anyone 
but himself ; but now he is a public servant and needs 
to have reserve force for those emergencies and off-days 
which come in every teacher's experience. The laws of 
nature are inexorable, and no guilty person can hope to 
escape the penalties consequent upon their violation. 
Ir nine cases out of ten, both as teacher and student, 
the person will accomplish more that is worth doing 
with a full quota of sleep and with reduced hours for 
study. There is a morbid conscientiousness which 
leads teachers to spend dreary hours in examining and 
marking papers when the best interests of their pupils 



20 School Management 

demand they should be in bed and asleep. Teachers 
who do this are not only sinning against themselves but 
against their pupils, for they are depriving them of that 
experience, so valuable, which would make them com- 
petent to criticise and correct their own work. Kefer- 
ence will be made to this subject in a later chapter. 

4. Of equal importance to the teacher is out-of-door 
life. The intrinsic value of fresh air and exercise to 
sedentary workers is too well understood to need ex- 
planation. We are children of nature, but are so hedged 
about by the artificialities of our modern life that we 
lose to a large extent the exhilaration of life. We do 
not, like the Indian, enjoy the abundance of sunlight 
and air which the Creator intended for us, but rather 
take them as medicine and often only upon the doctor's 
prescription. Out-of-door sports and athletics afford 
special opportunities to teachers. There is nothing 
more hopeful in our modern life than the sight of men 
and women of all ages enjoying golf, tennis, to say 
nothing of boating, riding, and walking. The teacher 
who does not have a scheme of daily life which includes 
regular exercise is willingly assuming a handicap which 
may cost him the race. The trolley-car may prove a 
menace to good health if it becomes a substitute for the 
morning or afternoon walk. There are many claims of 
a private and professional nature for the free hours of 
the Saturday holiday, all of which are legitimate, but a 
portion of it should be devoted to some pleasurable 
out-of-door diversion. 



The Teacher 21 

3. — Duties Out of School. 

Teachers receiving limited compensation are often 
tempted to engage in occupations out of school which 
make too heavy a drain upon their time and energies. 
One cannot wisely undertake to be a housekeeper, a 
nurse, or an editor without discounting his success in 
the school. He may render incidental assistance in 
any of these activities and find it profitable diver- 
sion. 

Ought a teacher to engage in Sunday-school work ? 
is a question which must usually be referred to private 
judgment. The need is very great for sound religious 
instruction, and nobody is so well equipped for this work 
as the day-school teacher. It brings him into a closer 
and more personal touch with the young, and gives him 
a fresh consciousness of those deeper life problems 
which belong to all true education. Doubtless many 
teachers need this experience, and are helped and re- 
freshed by it ; others have so little reserve force that 
they need absolute rest on Sunday and should not per- 
mit a morbid conscientiousness to overpower better 
judgment. Pastors and Christian leaders are often im- 
bued with the idea that there is no salvation for the 
young anywhere but in the Sunday-school, but the 
ethical possibilities of the day-school are becoming 
greater year by year, as increasing attention is given to 
character-building, and all the means and appliances of 
the school are made to foster this end. We do not 
therefore hesitate to say that the question whether the 
day-school teacher shall engage in Sunday-school work 
should be considered without sentiment or emotion after 



22 School Management 

a careful weighing of practical considerations of health 
and duty. 



4. — Intellectual Fitness of the Teacher. 

Many people drift into their vocation along the lines 
of least resistance, thus becoming teachers almost by 
accident. If any profession is worthy of good mental 
equipment it is teaching. Fortunately, while persons 
of inferior ability are almost sure to be found in the 
lower ranks of the profession, there are now so many 
checks upon advancement, and standards are being 
raised so rapidly, that only those of real intellectual 
worth are likely to reach the better paid and more hon- 
ored positions. The world seems to have places for 
all its inhabitants provided those places are diligently 
sought. For those of mediocre ability there are call- 
ings where deep thinking, imagination, and constructive 
genius are not required. The man of one talent need 
not dig in the earth and hide his treasure, neither may 
he seek to fill a position where five talents are essential 
and where ten may be used to advantage. 

5. — Moral Qualities Needed. 

The present emphasis given to imitation and sugges- 
tion constitute a claim for moral uprightness in the 
teacher that is almost startling. The student of child- 
hood observes how sensitive the child is to personality. 
While children are at home they are to a good extent 
faithful copies of father or mother. It is an open ques- 
tion whether the results of imitation are not greater 



The Teacher 23 

than those of heredity. The expression, the tone, the 
walk, and the disposition are like those of the parent, 
simply because the child follows the pattern which is 
so constantly before him. The more isolated families 
are, the more significant and specialized become the 
family traits. "When the child enters school he be- 
comes subject to the dominating influence of a new per- 
sonality. According as he loves his teacher he will imi- 
tate her and become fashioned after her pattern. 

This phenomenon, while affording a most valuable 
opportunity to the teacher, and giving him a special 
function as leader, imposes moral responsibility of the 
most serious sort. It is a compliment to say of a teach- 
er, " He has put his stamp upon every pupil," only when 
that stamp expresses nobility and righteousness. We 
see, then, how necessary it is that the teacher become 
the complete man or the complete woman, willing and 
able to stand for the right at all hazards, the champion 
of every good cause, and a worker for it as well. 

6. — Sincerity. 

Children are not easily deceived. If it were right for 
a person to be other than sincere, it is certainly not 
safe to try repeatedly the experiment in the school- 
room. Let any pretence or sham on the part of the 
teacher be recognized and become a subject of gossip 
in the school, the teacher's moral stock is at once rated 
low. He has been weighed in the balance and found 
wanting. Anyone whose besetting sin is to try to seem 
different from what he is, or seem to be able to do what 
he cannot do, has indeed a hard battle on his hands and 



24 School Management 

one from whicli he had better retreat. Overpraise of 
the efforts or work of a pupil is just as bad as undue 
criticism. Moderate reserve is better than excessive 
compliment. To say always to pupils what is fair and 
just tends to establish confidence and respect, without 
which a teacher can accomplish but little. 

7. — Honesty, 

This plain, every-day word may be regarded as in- 
cluding many minor traits of character which are intrin- 
sic in the school. Instead of making a finer analysis 
we will say once for all, the teacher must be honest. 
Whether the Father of his Country injured the cherry- 
tree or told the exact truth about it is of far less ac- 
count than the fact that the story of his truthfulness 
has become a national idyl and has made honesty a 
great cardinal virtue of the American people. There 
are only two kinds of politicians, the honest and dis- 
honest ; so with merchants, clergymen, journalists, and 
teachers. If a man is not honest he is a cipher in the 
moral scale ; and so if we can apply the test of honesty 
to ourselves and to our fellow-teachers we shall soon 
know who are accredited and accounted fit to be lead- 
ers of children and youth. 

The application of this principle is wide and varied. 
It begins in the morning hours and stands guard 
throughout the day. It reveals itself in countenance 
and voice, and gives steadiness and proportion to all 
work. Honesty begets honesty, and the honest teach- 
er makes the honest pupil. The lad in the school is 
the future citizen, and he will be a good citizen only as 



The Teacher 25 

honesty becomes a habit inseparable from his whole 
life. 

Promises in the school as elsewhere are sacred and 
must be kept. In evil report as well as in good report 
principles are to be defended and truth is to stand. All 
work is to be honestly done. So staunch must be this 
doctrine that it reaches the home and restrains parents 
from unduly aiding their children in their school tasks. 
All spurious exhibitions of school work, for the sake of 
public notice, should be tabooed both by teacher and 
pupil. The teacher whose conduct toward the child of 
the rich or influential is marked by any special cour- 
tesy or partiality loses measurably his popularity and 
influence. The American public school is the purest 
type of democracy and equality which modern civiliza- 
tion presents. He who violates its first principles and 
is dishonest for the sake of some personal advantage is 
unworthy of his profession. 

8. — The Teacher as a Social Force, 

The school exists to create a better social life, hence 
the teacher must be strong on the social side. His self- 
respect and dignity of bearing must be such as to make 
him esteemed and beloved in all circles. He should be 
broadly interested in the community life about him, in 
the daily employments of the people, in their various 
enterprises and undertakings. Every community is a 
sort of economic microcosm of the world ; as an educa- 
tor he should study and understand the industrial, com- 
mercial, and social life about him with their various in- 
terpretations. He should earnestly co-operate in all 



26 School Management 

efforts to further public sanitation and civic progress. 
He should be ready to combine with others at all times 
for every sort of human betterment. 

Unselfish social conduct tends to react upon any 
person, and make him more sympathetic and kind- 
hearted. Practice of social virtue implies social growth 
in the qualities that are specially needful in a teacher. 

There is all the difference in the world between the 
teacher who is instinctively social and the one who is 
strongly individualistic. The one adapts himself to cir- 
cumstances and the other is a martinet. For example : 
a child enters school late in the morning, and the teacher 
knows the mother is ill; she may inquire kindly after 
the sick parent and say nothing about tardiness, or she 
may remind the child that he must remain after school 
as a punishment. The latter course would not be un- 
usual, but it can hardly be called social. Again, a boy 
or girl straggling to assist in the home and at the same 
time continue at school gets less sleep than he needs, 
and consequently does poor work in his studies. In 
such a case the teacher reveals himself as social or un- 
social. He is exhibiting himself as human and kind, or 
as hard-hearted and indifferent. Many other instances 
might be cited where this test operates ; in fact, the whole 
stream of life in the school is filled with such incidents. 
Pupils have their own nomenclature for the words and 
acts of the teacher which seem to them to merit cen- 
sure. The word *' unsocial " is a gentlemanly name for 
a variety of offences against good society, which too 
often mar the beauty of the school life and blight the 
influence of the teacher. 



The Teacher 27 

9. — Temperament. 

Much that constitutes the individuality of the person 
is ascribed to temperament. This is not in any sense a 
distinct and separate attribute, but is a sort of complex 
product partly physical, partly mental and moral. It 
will readily be agreed that a teacher should possess a 
sanguine, hopeful temperament. Is it not fair to assume 
that every young person may cultivate those traits of 
character that shall result in a disposition that is whole- 
some and cheerful ? To this end he should summon all 
the energies of mind, heart, and will. He should always 
be the master of himself, and the divine goodness that 
is in him, even though it be but a spark, should be 
kindled into a flame, fusing every impulse and emotion, 
and making it pliable and obedient to his best judgment. 

10. — The Selection of TeacJiers. 

Every superintendent or member of a school board 
in our smaller communities, who can go out and freely 
choose teachers for vacant places, feels sure that this is 
the ideal method of selection. It offers to young teach- 
ers in the smaller communities the opportunity of ad- 
vancement to more desirable positions. Thus they are 
stimulated to excel, and to use all available means of 
professional growth. This freedom of selection operat- 
ing in towns and villages. East and West, has produced 
school-systems of the highest grade. There are some 
drawbacks to this method. 

1. Towns of limited financial ability sometimes lose 
their best teachers to such an extent as to cripple se- 



28 School Management 

riously the schools. Under these conditions the super- 
intendent has a constant struggle to keep his schools up 
to a moderate level of efficiency. 

2. Young teachers of pleasing personality and promise 
are often pushed on too rapidly, and, being ambitious to 
maintain themselves, draw too heavily upon their health 
and vitality. In some instances, after gaining the de- 
sired position, they relax their efforts and growth ceases. 

3. Freedom of selection makes school committees 
subject to the importunity of local candidates, who may 
or may not be competent. The position of teacher has 
a dazzling attractiveness for people who have not at- 
tained marked success in life, and who wish to see their 
children able to live without manual toil. Girls who 
have graduated from the public schools are thought to 
have earned a right to be teachers, as though a commu- 
nity which gives a free education to its children should 
also furnish a livelihood. Nothing in the life of our 
American communities has created more bitter feeling 
and antagonism than the appointment of teachers. In 
the larger cities, where school affairs were managed 
by ward committees, the situation became intolerable. 
Gradually the appointment of teachers has been hedged 
about by rules and regulations that prevent the possi- 
bility of favoritism or political influence. The special 
object of treating this subject in a work addressed 
primarily to teachers is that all members of the pro- 
fession are or should be interested in everything that 
relates to the validity and dignity of their calling. 
Working unitedly they may do much to strengthen a 
public sentiment in favor of those methods which are 
best for a given community. In many States this mat- 



The Teacher 29 

ter is controlled by statute, and several of our large 
cities have recently obtained new charters which pro- 
vide for the administration of the schools on strictly 
business principles. 



11. — Methods of Certificating, 

The new methods of school administration are copied 
largely from the civil service rules, which have long 
been used successfully in Europe, and are now well 
established in a policy of our national and State gov- 
ernments. The cardinal idea is merit. Examinations 
to determine the competency of applicants, and the 
assignment of those who are successful to an eligible 
list, are the chief working features of the plan. Taking 
the country as a whole, there are several current methods 
of certificating teachers which are more or less effica- 
cious in thwarting personal influence and " pull." 1, The 
requirement of a normal school diploma. 2. Gradua- 
tion from a high school and a normal school diploma. 
3. Graduation from a high school, and diploma from 
a local training school. 4. Examination by a duly 
constituted board, with an eligible list. 5. Examina- 
tion by State or county board, which may be accepted 
by a local committee. 6. Sundry regulations in the use 
of an eligible list. 7. A fixed term of probation, upon 
the result of which the candidate may receive regular 
appointment. 

Here, as in other departments, the lack of a centralized 
system permits much experimentation and variation in 
practice. This will prove beneficial in the end, for the 
methods found to be best will eventually become uni- 



30 School Management 

versal. Whatever the general method of certificating is, 
it should always be possible for a school board to go 
out into the open market when positions of peculiar 
technical difficulty are to be filled. 



12. — Terms of Probation. 

Teachers who have received the best normal training 
have still to gain real professional ability by experience. 
The first year, at least, should be a time of probation. 
The salary should be smaller and the duties less exact- 
ing than afterward. In college teaching, the young 
person must needs have several years as assistant tutor 
and instructor before he is eligible to the position of 
assistant professor. The beginner in a primary, gram- 
mar, or high school should not give his time grudgingly 
to this preparatory work. He will wisely make the 
most careful preparation of the lessons he is to teach, 
and will observe the work of the best teachers as closely 
as possible. He will carefully measure himself in his 
work ; he will solicit criticism from the principal and 
superintendent ; he will establish pleasant relations 
with his pupils; in short, leave no stone unturned in 
doing his work thoroughly and well. If this first year 
of teaching, difficult and trying though it may be, 
brings him out victorious at the end, he will enter upon 
his second year with a confidence and satisfaction which 
could have been found in no other way. 

We have thus enumerated some of the qualities 
which the teacher should possess and which he should 
try to cultivate during his professional career. We 
have endeavored to suggest that these qualities which 



The Teacher 31 

enter into temperament and character are not fixed 
quantities. They are susceptible to change and devel- 
opment under favoring conditions whenever there is in- 
telligent purpose and persistency. What has been said 
along this line as well as regarding the conditions ud- 
der which the teacher enters the profession is prelim- 
inary to a consideration of the means of growth open to 
the teacher, which will be treated in the following 
chapter. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. The influence of personality. 

2. Ways of preserving health. 

3. Activities outside of the school. 

4. Desirable mental and moral traits. 

5. The teacher as a social factor. 

6. Can temperament be changed ? 

7. Why should teachers be carefully selected ? 

8. Some ways of entering the profession. 



CHAPTER III 
THE GROWTH OF THE TEACHER 

Gbowth is the necessary attendant of life. When a 
plant stops growing it begins to die. It is doubtful if 
there is in the life of any organism a period when it is 
absolutely stationary. We cannot always tell by look- 
ing at it whether it is still growing, or has turned the 
point of its highest development and commenced its 
career of decadence. But we know that the period 
which marks the divide has no appreciable magni- 
tude. 

The human organism, in spite of all caution and care, 
passes through the same cycle of development and de- 
cay. It is clear also that the mind is so wedded to the 
body as to make it a dependent subject. Whenever 
the body is impaired the mind suffers with it. There 
are, however, two fundamental truths which offer en- 
couragement to all who cherish life, and especially the 
life of the intellect : First, every individual, by obeying 
the laws of health, can measurably facilitate growth, in- 
crease his potentiality, and postpone the hour when de- 
terioration begins. Secondly, he can give such suprem- 
acy to mind, conscience, and will as to make the soul, to 
a good degree, defiant of bodily ailments, and keep con- 
stantly growing as long as life lasts. 

These truths, so rich in value to all people, are espe- 



The Growth of the Teacher 33 

cially valuable to teachers. How then, let us ask, can 
teachers make a steady increase of mental and spiritual 
power ? 

1. — Cultivate the Social Life, 

The teacher needs to know human life in the con- 
crete. He needs to enter into sympathy with all kinds 
of people. If he visits the homes of his pupils he is 
likely to know a variety of persons, and the acquaint- 
ances thus made will serve more than one purpose. By 
knowing parents he can the more readily influence their 
children. His acquaintance tends to give him a recog- 
nized place in the community, makes him familiar with 
his environment, and furnishes him needed local data 
for his work. 

Moreover, the teacher needs that particular kind of 
stimulus that is implied in the term " going into soci- 
ety." The teacher usually needs cultivation on the 
human side. He knows more of books than of people. 
In some circles he is apt to be awkward and ill at ease. 
This is soon overcome by experience, and the ability to 
move among people with grace and dignity is an accom- 
plishment not to be despised. Social life in the best 
sense is a good tonic for the mind, an antidote to 
morbidness, broadens one's interests, and makes him 
more sane and companionable. 

The clannishness of some teachers is fatal to their best 
growth. They have an idea that by reason of their 
calling they are discounted in social circles. This has 
been more or less true in the past, but is seldom so to- 
day. The teacher owes it to his profession to esteem 
himself as fit for any society. Every time he worthily 



34 School Management 

represents his profession he is contributing something 
4o its repute and standing. 

2. — Seeh Desirable Friendships, 

Over and above what has been said about acquaint- 
ance with common people, and conventional social 
intercourse, the teacher particularly needs those close, 
intimate friendships which, to the young at least, are 
among the most significant means of personal growth. 
The teacher must occasionally throw off restraint and 
lapse into a sort of childlike freedom. At such times 
he needs the attrition of kindred spirits. It is often 
better if the intimate friend pursues another calling 
and has diverse interests. Thus we learn many facts 
quite outside of our own experience, and our thoughts 
are turned into new and fresh channels. Our pedantry 
and conceit are properly corrected, and we gain fresh 
courage and condition for our work by learning what is 
being achieved in other departments of effort. One 
cannot have many intimate friends. They should be 
carefully chosen, and their confidence and sympathy, 
when once secured, should be guarded as a peculiar and 
precious possession. In these rare and exceptional 
friendships the deeper feelings and aspirations find ex- 
pression, and the best that is in us is brought out and 
made to do us service. 

3. — Bead Many Books, 

" Eeading," said Lord Bacon, " maketh a full man." 
Perhaps if he were living to-day he would say good read- 
ing, for the range of choice is much greater than it was, 



The Growth of the Teacher 35 

and the danger of dissipation is increased. As the ex- 
perience of the race is preserved to us in books, the 
teacher, for the sake of knowledge and professional 
power, must read widely. 

1. The subject-matter of teaching is ever broadening 
and changing, so that the teacher must do a good deal 
of reading on the informational side. His knowledge 
of the subject he teaches should be far beyond that of 
the pupil. Nothing is more pitiable and unprofessional 
than the instructor who is contented to know simply 
what he has to teach. There are now great modern 
works in geography, history, and science, which con- 
stitute a treasure-house to any teacher who has access 
to them. 

2. Next in importance is that professional reading 
which furnishes a broad view of educational history and 
ideals. Properly speaking, the history of education com- 
prises the story of human progress. It also presents a 
record of the great educational leaders, who, far in ad- 
vance of their time, have been centres of influence and 
light through the centuries. Neither general history 
nor the theories of the reformers can be safely ignored. 
It is not unusual to hear some rising pedagogue ex- 
ploiting ideas which were preached by Eabelais, Mon- 
taigne, Comenius, or Kousseau. A good knowledge of 
educational history gives one a deeper respect for the 
past and makes him more modest and more teachable. 

3. The growing teacher will read psychology, particu- 
larly as it reveals the nature of mind and is applicable 
to methods of instruction. No teacher, for instance, 
can afford to be without Professor James's " Talks on 
Psychology, and Life's Ideals." Hand in hand with 



36 School Management 

such reading comes the study of individual children, 
and a growing recognition of the need of adaptation and 
individual treatment. 

4. The general literature of our time is not likely to 
be neglected, for it is quite disconcerting and inconven- 
ient to be ignorant of what is produced in this field. 
There is even some danger, with the wealth of fiction 
which now crowds our library shelves, to say nothing of 
history, travel, or sociology, that general reading may 
compete too sharply with that of a professional sort. 
It is not wise, however, to draw too sharp a line be- 
tween professional and general reading. The treatment 
of social questions of the day is largely educational, and 
almost any study of ethical, social, or economic problems 
contains educational elements which readily fit into a 
broad scheme of pedagogy. A social settlement in 
Boston, New York, or Chicago is distinctly an educa- 
tional institution. The same may be said of very many 
churches. Some of our great writers of fiction, like 
Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Charles Reade, have 
greatly enriched the literature of education. Dickens's 
"Hard Times," for instance, presents a plea for the nurt- 
ure of the imagination and fancy in childhood which 
has never been surpassed. So it can be said with truth 
that pedagogy cannot be separated from human history 
and human experience any more than religion can be 
separated from life. 

5. The teacher must be informed in current history as 
presented in newspapers and magazines. It seems only 
just to say that such reading is of less account than any 
other, and should be incidental and restricted. Nothing 
can be more debilitating for the mind than to absorb the 



The Growth of the Teacher 37 

trashy contents of some of these publications. Journals 
and magazines render a great service in bringing to us 
the raw materials of information. It is possible to be- 
come enslaved to this kind of literature to such an extent 
as to arrest that higher development which a better 
class of reading gives. 

Enough has been said to enforce the idea that a 
teacher's reading should by no means be narrow, but 
should be selected from all fields of good literature, giv- 
ing, of course, special emphasis to those books and 
articles which have to do with methods of teaching, 
educating, and uplifting the young. To illustrate more 
clearly what is meant by a broad selection the following 
list of ten books is given. Each one is a type of the 
best material to be found in the particular field which it 
represents. 

The Growth of the Brain. Donaldson, 

Talks to Teachers, and Life's Ideals. James, 

Apperception. Lange. 

History of Pedagogy. Com'payre. 

Illustrations of Universal Progress. Spencer, 

School and Society. Dewey, 

Hard Times. Dickens. 

Lectures on Teaching. Fitch. 

General Method. McMurry, 

School Hygiene. Shaiv. 

4. — Visit the Best Schools. 

Here we have a practical means of professional 
growth which is too often neglected. School officials 
forget that an entire school may often be closed, and the 



38 School Management 

teacher sent to visit other schools, with very little loss 
so far as the pupils are concerned. Quality is better 
than quantity, and teachers frequently return from such 
visits with renewed courage and enterprise, and the 
school is at once a better school. Some foolish and 
undesirable things occur when teachers visit other 
schools, and a few suggestions relative to those who re- 
ceive visitors as well as those who visit are in order. 

1. Principals and teachers who entertain visiting 
teachers should let all the affairs of the school move on 
in their regular way. The visitor does not wish to see 
an exhibition of unusual and special exercises, but 
rather the every-day work. Do not, therefore, change 
the programme unless requested to do so by the super- 
intendent or principal, and he, if wise, will make this 
request only in rare instances. 

2. Do not ask the visitor to examine an enormous 
mass of written papers. A few typical papers should 
always be at hand for visitors to see if they choose to do 
so. Not wishing to offend they will inspect a large 
number, but it is a thankless task, and is not what they 
came for. The real object of interest to the visitor is 
the pupils ; the manner in which they study and recite ; 
the kind of co-operation existing between them and 
their teachers ; the degree of promptness and despatch 
with which the work is carried on ; the methods and de- 
vices used ; and the general deportment of the school. 

3. Another mistake is to hurry visitors from room to 
room, and from one attraction to another, not giving 
them the opportunity to see anything thoughtfully or 
thoroughly. 

4. It is a bad practice to send word through the 



The Growth of the Teacher 39 

school that visitors have arrived and are to make the 
rounds. It is the first step toward making a show of 
the school, which too easily affects teachers and pupils. 

5. The practice of calling only on the brightest pupils 
when visitors are present is vicious, for it is too well 
understood by pupils, and gives them an opinion of the 
teacher which he cannot afford to have them hold. 

Those who visit need also to avoid a few mistakes. 

1. If possible they should arrive in time to see the 
school open, and should remain during the entire ses- 
sion. 

2. They should pass quietly from room to room 
without asking for introductions. 

3. Ask no questions while recitations are in progress, 
but make notes and seek information either at recess or 
at the close of school. 

4. See everything. Count nothing of small impor- 
tance. While visiting another school a teacher is really 
looking in a mirror. He will, perchance, see some things 
that he will wish to avoid in the future — or, in other 
words, he will become conscious of his own faults. 

5. Do not go home and speak disparagingly of what 
you have seen. If called upon to report your visit do 
it with such fairness as to leave no stigma upon the 
teacher concerned. Be sure that if you have seen 
nothing to commend there is some fault in yourself. 

6. It is well to visit other grades than your own. 
The kindergartner should obseiwe carefully the develop- 
ment of the work in the primary grades. Every pri- 
mary teacher, on the other hand, should observe the 
kindergarten as well as the work which follows and 
precedes her own. Grammar and high school teachers 



40 School Management 

may profitably visit any class where good work is being 
done. 

Young, inexperienced instructors in college, who 
probably are the poorest teachers extant, lose an oppor- 
tunity and do an injustice to themselves and their stu- 
dents if they fail to study the methods used in the best 
secondary schools. 

Educators and teachers of all grades may learn much 
by visiting schools for defective children ; institutions 
for the care of the deaf, dumb, and blind ; reformatories 
like those at Elmira, Concord, and Sherburn, Mass. ; 
industrial schools for backward peoples, like Hampton, 
Tuskegee, and Carlisle ; as well as various trade-schools, 
technical schools, and schools of applied art. 

In an experience covering thirty years of school 
supervision the writer has noticed that many teachers 
are contented to go on year after year without visiting 
other schools. As a rule their work is not of the 
highest order. It is evident, therefore, that superin- 
tendents and principals must organize a scheme of 
regular visitation. Every teacher should have at least 
two days in each year for this purpose, and, when the 
vacation permits it, he should be expected to devote 
some small fraction of his time in the same way. Re- 
ports made at a teachers' meeting of what has been seen 
during such visits are an important feature of the plan. 

5. — Institutes and Conventions, 

Normal institutes have been a decided factor in the 
development of the American teacher. During that 
period when normal schools were largely academic 



The Growth of the Teacher 41 

in their character, and when a very large percentage of 
teachers received no professional training, the State 
and county institute, continuing for several days, at- 
tendance upon which was required, has been of untold 
value. If the time comes when, as in Germany, all 
teachers are required to have preliminary training in 
normal schools, the institute will become of less ac- 
count, but even then there will be a place for such con- 
vocations. The opportunity for mutual acquaintance, the 
inspiration derived from the eloquent instructors, and 
the satisfaction that comes from knowing and hearing 
those accounted as leaders, will always make the in- 
stitute a means of improving schools. 

The great conventions which are held by nearly every 
State and the National Education Association have also 
contributed their part to educational progress. Teach- 
ers from distant portions of the United States who at- 
tended the great convention in Boston, in 1903, re- 
returned to their homes with a new sense of pride and 
dignity, and with many impressions of New England 
life and achievement which will be a pleasant memory 
in their future work. It is no reflection upon Boston, 
or upon her people, to say that the schools of that city 
will reap a considerable benefit through the awakened 
interest of the teachers, who, by their generous hos- 
pitality and cordial greeting to the teachers of the 
country, did so much to make the convention a success. 
Many helpful addresses were heard with interest, but 
they did not constitute the most valuable part of the 
programme. There is one caution to be observed by 
those who attend meetings of an inspirational character. 
Speakers often go to extremes in emphasizing the par- 



42 School Management 

ticular side of a subject wliich they are treating. It 
sometimes happens that several people take opposite 
points of view. Extreme statements are made, and 
one's credulity is often taxed severely in trying to ac- 
cept what is urged. All this requires that teachers 
should weigh evidence carefully, and reserve judgment 
on questions not clear. Such discussions enlarge one's 
horizon and extend the knowledge of the subject, but 
should not lead to hasty conclusions. It has been well 
said that it is better to know less than too much of what 
is untrue. 

6. — Teachers' Meetings, 

In all large schools and systems of schools the teach- 
ers' meeting is often the key to freedom and progress. 
It is as vital to the welfare of the school as the Sunday 
service is to that of the church. It often serves a pur- 
pose not unlike that of a consultation of physicians, in- 
asmuch as special cases of inaptness and misconduct, 
which baffle the individual teacher, are successfully 
diagnosed through the wisdom of several. There are 
two distinct kinds of teachers' meetings. One includes 
all in the system, and its purpose is to develop com- 
mon aims and ideals, and secure perfect understanding 
touching the practical work to be accomplished. Such 
a meeting may be conducted in an infinite number of 
ways, and still accomplish its purpose. In this, as in 
all other meetings, let there be informality and freedom. 
An ordinary class-room is not a good place in which to 
assemble. A room furnished with loose chairs, so that 
all can group around the leader in a social way, is far 
better. Questions or suggestions should always be in 



The Growth of the Teacher 43 

order at every point. Even if the superintendent or the 
principal is lecturing he does not wish to pose as an 
oracle, or to deliver an address so polished that it slips 
through the minds of his hearers without having made 
any definite impression. The true method of the 
teachers' meeting is that of conference. The subject 
should be announced in advance, and in many instances 
a series of meetings would be required in which the in- 
terest and discussion should be continuous and progres- 
sive. Some outside reading should be suggested, and 
brief, definite reports from persons specially designated 
are an advantage. These are some of the topics which 
have been found fruitful at such meetings : 

Evolution in its relation to education. 

Sense and motor activity. 

Culture of the feelings and imagination. 

The doctrine of interest. 

Apperception. 

The five formal steps of education. 

The hygiene of study and fatigue. 

How to train pupils to study. 

Amount and kinds of home-work. 

School housekeeping. 

Self-government : Its possibilities and limits. 

An occasional lecturer from outside is a welcome 
feature, but for the most part such meetings should be 
carried on by home talent. 

These general meetings are often held monthly. 
They serve to develop unity, and give some direction 
to the professional study and thought of the teachers. 
It is better that such meetings be held in the afternoon 
at the close of school. This is usually more agreeable 



44 School Management 

to teachers than to be called together on Saturday. 
The meetings should not continue for more than an 
hour. Everything unnecessary and trivial should be 
omitted, and there should be the most earnest concen- 
tration on the subject in hand. Frequent violations of 
this rule make many teachers' meetings a dreary waste 
of time and distasteful to all concerned. 

An afternoon tea at the close of the meeting facili- 
tates acquaintance and is always enjoyed. This feature 
-becomes still pleasanter when, in succession during the 
year, several ladies and gentlemen in the community are 
invited to be present and make the acquaintance of the 
teachers. This plan has been known to result in many 
pleasant friendships between teachers and citizens, and 
the opening of the homes to teachers. 

Another class of meetings is that for teachers of a 
grade, or for a group of those teaching the same subject, 
as, for example, in the high school. Here there should be 
even greater informality and individual initiative. The 
superintendent or principal may wisely let some mem- 
ber of the grade or group conduct the meeting while he 
becomes a listener, taking part as opportunity may 
offer. This is the time for considering, step by step, 
the several parts of the curriculum, in respect of ma- 
terial, and the correlation of one subject with another. 
This study should be intensive and thorough. Discus- 
sion should not be checked until all possible light has 
been brought to bear and some definite conclusions are 
reached and formulated. Methods of teaching with 
illustrated lessons, teaching plans, devices, and illustra- 
tive material may all be brought into these meetings. 
Something is accomplished by having the teachers 



The Growth of the Teacher 45 

bring into each meeting some specimens of the work of 
their pupils. 

The special teachers of music, art, physical training, 
handwork, or nature study should find in the grade 
meeting opportunity for explaining their plans and se- 
curing intelligent co-operation. Frank suggestion and 
criticism on both sides are far better than misunder- 
standing and lack of cordiality which often creep into 
a school and mar the pleasure of working. 

In short, these meetings should be a clearing-house 
for all details of management and teaching. Teachers 
will attend them cheerfully, as they furnish specific 
directions and suggestions for every side of their work. 

7. — Travel as a Means of Growth, 

To visit the great cities of our own country, to 
behold its great mountains, rivers, prairies, and forests 
is a means of culture to any teacher. To cross the ocean 
and see the old countries and view their treasures of art 
and their historic monuments is of still greater value. 
He who esteems highly such means of pleasm*e and 
growth does well to practise economy, and lay aside 
something for this purpose. Viewed simply as academic 
education, the knowledge of history, geography, art, and 
human progress gained by travel is far more serviceable 
than that learned from books. It is real, and bears the 
same relation to what one reads about such things that 
a great painting, glorious in color, bears to a photograph 
or wood engraving. Viewed from a pedagogic stand- 
point, the teacher who travels can teach with more con- 
fidence and enthusiasm, and will impart to his pupils 



46 School Management 

somewhat of the reality of things which he himself 
feels. Moreover, he finds a new joy in his work, and 
can exert a wider influence among his associates and 
patrons. 

8. — Freedom Facilitates Growth, 

School officers cannot afford to shackle their teachers 
or impose irksome rules and regulations. Emancipation 
is the order of our time. To rise in the morning and 
feel that we can give free rein' to our best impulses, 
and that even our dreams may be transmuted into real 
achievements, affords us the keenest satisfaction that 
life can give. Under such conditions the worker, who- 
soever he may be, becomes the artist, putting a little of 
himself into his daily task, giving it the stamp of in- 
dividuality which differentiates it from the work of 
everyone else. 

Bed tape, precedents, and officialism are a kind of 
dry rot in any school system. As the large majority of 
teachers are women, who are naturally conscientious, 
yielding, and obedient, the evil becomes still greater. All 
the sources of growth and culture we have heretofore 
enumerated are of little consequence if the teacher must 
always hear the clatter of official machinery. She soon 
ceases to be the artist and becomes simply an operative. 
Organization is good and thelre must be some system 
in every large enterprise. But as education has to do 
largely with motive, sentiment, and spirit, the more 
simplicity and directness there is in requirements, and 
the more freedom of individual judgments, the better. 
American schools to-day need less of humdrum and 
routine and more of scientific adaptation of means to 



The Growth of the Teacher 47 

ends. It is only through free, individual initiative that 
the teacher can address himself unreservedly to the 
child for whom the school exists. 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. The law of growth and decay. 

2. Why a teacher should seek society. 

3. The value of intimate friends. 

4. What should a teacher read, and why? 

5. School visiting. What has your experience shown? 

6. Institutes as a pedagogic stimulus. 

7. Why do teachers' meetings often lack interest? 

8. Tlie teacher's right to freedom. 



CHAPTER IV 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 

The health of the child is always of first account, 
whether in the home or in the school. Conditions have 
often been so unfavorable in the schools of the past that 
it is a question whether the value of the formal educa- 
tion received compensated for the injury done to the 
health. During the last century the world has ad- 
vanced rapidly toward a better knowledge of the laws 
of health, and in the utilization of the discoveries made 
by science. 

School boards and teachers assume a grave responsi- 
bility in the care of children, and the use they make of 
means at their disposal to this end is of first considera- 
tion in school management. Not only should teachers 
be thoughtful and intelligent in all matters of hygiene 
and sanitation, but they should enlist the interest of 
their pupils to the same end. The ordinary means 
employed to promote health and prevent disease are of 
the highest educational importance, and not beyond the 
comprehension of pupils in the elementary schools. 
Carefully prepared rules relating to contagious diseases 
and the necessary precautions to be taken should be 
distributed to all homes, and the co-operation of parents 
should be solicited. A book on the physical nature of 
the child, by Stewart H. Kowe, contains in its closing 

48 



Physical Conditions 49 

chapter a large number of questions relating to food, 
clothing, care of the skin, breathing exercises, sleep, 
and the miscellaneous habits of children, which may 
wisely be used in calling the attention of parents to 
some of the more common dangers, and as a means of 
educating the popular mind in the more elementary 
principles of hygiene. 

This is not the place for an exhaustive treatment of 
school construction and the scientific reasons for the in- 
tricate and elaborate provisions now made for heating, 
ventilating, and plumbing in school-houses. Teachers 
are usually called to work where the conditions are 
largely established, and even if new buildings are to be 
erected their advice is too seldom sought. The chief 
emphasis here is laid on the right use of such means as 
are at hand for conserving bodily health and comfort in 
the school. At the same time some of the general and 
more practical considerations are given with the hope 
that they may assist teachers in understanding, and 
helping their pupils to understand better, the problems 
which they have to solve. 

1. — The School Site and Grounds. 

The selection of the school site is a fair index of the 
wisdom and generous tendencies of the school board. 
In growing towns and cities, as fast as the areas of 
future expansion are determined, tracts of land should 
be secured at low prices, large enough to provide for 
future school buildings, and for ample playgrounds for 
the people of the several neighborhoods. To make the 
school, as is now so often proposed, a community centre, 



50 School Management 

implies that playgrounds are to be used by adults as well 
as children. For those people who are confined the great- 
er part of the time in unhygienic shops and factories, 
the need of out-of-door diversion becomes imperative. 

The school should be located on high ground, away 
from all objectionable noises and all unsanitary condi- 
tions. The soil should be natural, dry, and such as can 
be easily drained. 

There are at least four features in the ideal school 
lot: 1. The ground upon which the building stands. 
2. Such open space in front as permits landscape gar- 
dening sufficient to insure attractive entrances and 
approaches to the building. 3. The school garden. 
4. The playground. When the school-house is already 
established consideration can usually be given to the 
second and third, and the fourth when there is sufficient 
space. There are few school-houses where something 
cannot be done to beautify its approaches by means of 
trees, lawn, shrubs, and flowers, tastefully arranged. If 
the building stands, as is often the case, on one side of 
the lot, so that there is considerable space on the other, a 
school garden can be organized as well as a playground, 
if this is feasible. 

It is not necessary here to go into detail respecting 
the method of laying out the grounds or the garden. 
Many articles have already been written in magazines 
and school journals, and in nearly every community 
there are examples of good taste in landscape architect- 
ure which school officers and teachers can study in 
working out the proper scheme. The principle of self- 
activity should have some influence in this connection. 
For example, in the development of the school garden it 



Physical Conditions 51 

would be a waste of opportunity to have all the plans 
made by the teacher, and simply permit the pupils to 
obey directions. Eather let the school garden grow out 
of investigations by the pupils into the methods of agri- 
culture. Let them consult farmers and gardeners on 
the best way of growing different crops, and the best 
kinds of soil and fertilizers to be used. A reasonable 
degree of rivalry adds interest here, as in other forms of 
school work. Kesults of these inquiries, with varying 
degrees of success and failure, will give real education, 
and make the school garden a good type of industrial and 
scientific training. The various problems in arithmetic 
and science which arise are excellent for the pupils to 
solve, because they are real. 

2. — TJie School Building. 

School architecture has progressed rapidly in recent 
years. * Certain principles are coming to be recognized 
generally. 

It is commonly agreed that the school-house should be 
simple and, as far as possible, expressive of the purpose 
for which it exists. Occasionally good taste is violated 
by too elaborate design, over-ornamentation, and in- 
harmonious colors, but an examination of a large num- 
ber of prints of modern schools shows a similarity of 
type and an evident subordination of design to utility. 

It is agreed, also, that the building should be planned 
from within outward, the school-room being regarded as 
the unit. When the school-rooms have been planned 
and arranged with reference to lighting and conven- 
ience the architect is less likely to err in completing the 
rest of the scheme. 



52 School Management 



3. — The School-Boom, 

Much thought has been given to the form and size of 
the school-room. Whatever may be the character of a 
room where a teacher does his work, he should make a 
careful study of it, to see that the best possible results 
are obtained in respect of lighting, fresh air, conven- 
ience and good taste. Every teacher should know what 
standards are generally accepted. It is understood 
that in cities, where space is very expensive, there is 
more crowding than under other conditions. A room 
28 X 32 feet is considered a good size for any grade of 
school. If, as is desirable, the long side of the room is 
exposed to the light, the rows of desks may be so 
placed as to leave some vacant space in front and on 
the side farthest from the windows for tables and other 
useful furniture. A minimum height of first-story 
rooms is 13 feet. As the light is usually superior on 
the second floor, the height may properly be 12 feet. 
Natural slate blackboards should be placed on all wall 
space not occupied by doors. These should be from 3^ 
to 4 feet in width. For primary pupils they should be 
placed 2 feet and 3 inches from the floor. For gram- 
mar and high school pupils from 3 feet to 3 feet 6 
inches. These boards should be closely fitted together 
and cemented. Chalk receivers should be beneath the 
blackboards. These should have a wire covering at- 
tached by hinges so that when they are in use no 
dust may be disturbed, and they may be conveniently 
cleaned. 

The floor of the school-room, as of all parts of the 



Physical Conditions 53 

building, should be of maple or liard pine, selected stock, 
grooved, and closely fitted to prevent cracks for the 
accumulation of dust. For wainscoting, some of the 
best authorities recommend hard plaster well painted 
without gloss, to give a hard, durable surface. 



4. — Seating, 

The best school furniture yet devised is the single, 
adjustable desk and chair. This is constructed in vari- 
ous styles, but the differences in them are not marked. 
Special care should be taken that the seat is comfort- 
able, properly supporting the back and shoulders. A 
desk designed by the late Dr. Shaw has some advan- 
tages, as the top slips back and forth, affording minus 
distance for reading and plus distance for writing. It 
has a slant of 15°, but may be raised to a level when 
the nature of the work requires it. 

The seat should be adjusted so that, with the feet of 
the pupil on the floor, the lower limbs will be directly 
at right angles to the thigh, which is level. 

It is very important that when adjustable furniture 
is provided the adjustments be promptly and carefully 
made. The maker usually provides a measuring-rod 
and definite directions as to its use. The writer remem- 
bers visiting a new highschool building toward the end 
of the year when no adjustments had been made. Such 
oversight is inexcusable. It shows the absence of care 
for the welfare of the pupils. 

In case furniture that is not adjustable is used there 
should be at least three sizes placed in rows, so that the 
smaller pupils come in front. This permits consider- 



54 School Management 

able adaptation to the size of desks and makes the room 
present a good appearance. 



6. — Lighting, 

When the planning of the building permits school- 
rooms oblong in shape, it is desirable that all the light 
should come from one side, with an arrangement of 
seats so that the pupils get the light from the left. The 
more completely that side is filled with glass the better. 
There should be a minimum of from one-fourth to one- 
fifth of the floor space. The windows should have 
square heads which should reach to the top of the room, 
and should extend to about three and a quarter feet of 
the floor. In some cases iron muUions are used, thus 
precluding the use of brick or timber work, which ob- 
structs the light. 

All kinds of inside blinds are objectionable. Opaque 
shades of an ^cru or greenish tint, running either from 
the top or the bottom, afford the best means of control- 
ling the light. Authorities differ as to which method is 
better. The objection to having the shades run from 
the bottom is that teachers wish to have window-boxes, 
and in the care of plants the shades become injured. 
Experience has shown that shades attached at the top 
can bo made to serve every purpose. When the shades 
are large tint cloth is more durable than hoUand. In 
dealing with old buildings where there is insujB&cient 
light, factory ribbed glass in the upper sashes is found 
helpful. 

The tinting of the walls of the school-room play an 
important part, not only in its attractiveness, but in 



Physical Conditions 55 

making the light agreeable. The ceiling should be 
white or a light cream color. In school-rooms where 
there is plenty of sunlight green tints arc most dura- 
ble. Booms having a northerly exposure are made to 
seem more home-like by being tinted in warmer colors, 
as a yellowish gray or light terra-cotta. 

6, — Cloak-Rooms, 

Cloak-rooms may be placed either along the corridor 
or in separate rooms adjacent to the school-rooms. In 
either case thorough heating and ventilation should be 
provided. If placed in the corridors they should be 
connected with the school-rooms and should be locked 
when not in use to prevent thieving. Each child should 
have a separate locker or cubicle divided off by parti- 
tions, with a shelf at the bottom for rubbers, and one at 
the top for lunch-box or books. Corridor wardrobes 
are often partitioned off with wire-mesh set in frames, 
thus permitting the better circulation of air, and a more 
complete drying of clothing in damp weather. 

7. — Corridors. 

The ideal type of school building has class-rooms 
along the sunny side with corridors, offices, and other 
rooms on the other side. However large the building, 
this type in its main features may be preserved. The 
corridors should be at least nine feet wide, and, in the 
case of large buildings containing several hundred pu- 
pils, may well be as much as twelve feet in width. They 
should be well lighted, and the walls may be tinted in 
richer tones than are used in the class-rooms. 



S6 School Management 



8. — Staircases, 

Staircases should be placed at either end of the 
building. There should be no open wells. Each stair- 
way should have at least one platform or landing for 
every story. The risers should be 6 to 6^ inches high, 
and the tread from 10 to 12 inches wide. Hand-rails 
should be provided on either side, firmly bolted to the 
walls. There should be windows upon the landings, 
elevated at least four feet from the floor. Staircases 
should be either of fire-proof or slow-burning construc- 
tion. 

9. — Other Features, 

Doors leading to class-rooms should be made to swing 
both ways by means of a spring check. Glass panels 
are necessary in such doors, and, in short, are found to 
be convenient in doors of different construction. Any 
means of preventing noise or confusion, like the fre- 
quent opening and shutting of doors, contributes to the 
success of the school. 

When a school-house is being designed, those who 
are to occupy it should insist upon economy in the 
planning of both basement and attic. A dry, well- 
lighted basement, if reasonably free from supporting 
timbers and masonry, and if well warmed and venti- 
lated, may be put to a variety of purposes, as play- and 
lunch-rooms, manual training shops, and gymnasiums. 

The attic also may be so free from timber work as to 
provide excellent rooms for domestic art and science, 
clay work, and all sorts of games and occupations suit- 



Physical Conditions 57 

able for young children, which are becoming a promi- 
nent feature in school life. 

The most satisfactory finish for a school building is 
oak or ash. White wood, however, if properly treated, 
so that the surface is perfectly hard and without polish, 
is quite durable, and can easily be kept clean. 

Every school building should have a small reception- 
room, neatly furnished, where the principal or teachers 
may meet parents or other visitors. It is convenient 
to have this room adjacent to the school office. The 
principal should have communication with his teachers 
either by telephones or speaking-tubes. 

Before each entrance there should be a large steel 
mat, and just inside the door one or more woven mats, 
both of which the pupils should be trained to use. 

10. — Heating and Ventilation. 

This subject is so vast and so vital to the best inter- 
ests of the school that a separate treatise is needed for 
the use of those who are to study it carefully. " The 
Ventilation and Heating of School Buildings" by 
Morrison, and the treatment given by Kottlemann and 
Shaw in their several works entitled " School Hygiene," 
contain the essential facts. 

The heating of the school-house should be such as to 
secure uniform temperature of 64° to 70° Fahrenheit, 
there being some variation according to the age of 
the pupils, the younger children needing a somewhat 
warmer temperature than the older ones. The ventila- 
tion of the school-house involves the removal of air that 
has become vitiated by breathing, and the introduc- 



58 School Management 

tion of pure, warm air in its place. Thus heating 
and ventilating constitute one process, and this proc 
ess requires the application of a definite amount of 
power. 

By long experience and many experiments it has 
been found that thirty cubic feet of fresh air per minute 
is the minimum for each person. Many modern school 
buildings now provide fifty cubic feet per minute. Tak- 
ing the smaller quantity, we can readily see that the 
amount required for fifty pupils for one hour is 90,000 
cubic feet, and, if we take the larger amount of fifty cu- 
bic feet per minute, the enormous mass of 150,000 cu- 
bic feet of fresh air per hour for every fifty pupils. But 
what are we to say in regard to school-rooms where not 
more than one-half, one-third, or one-fourth of the nec- 
essary amount of air is furnished ? Or where, because 
of the inadequacy of the ventilating plant, or some 
fault in its working, there is little or no change of air, 
unless, perchance, the windows are opened, or the pu- 
pils sent out-of-doors. This brings us face to face with 
two significant facts : 

1. The inadequate ventilation of a school-room under- 
mines the health and leads the way to many forms of 
disease. 

2. It is equally harmful in a pedagogic sense, for it 
makes it impossible for teachers and pupils to do good 
mental work. Let us briefly consider this situation in 
some of its more common aspects. 

" There are many substances," says Morrison,* " con- 
stantly passing into the air, tending to make it unfit for 
respiration. Those which more especially concern us 

* " The Ventilation and Heating of School Buildings," Morrison. 



Physical Conditions 59 

in consideration of the condition of our school-houses 
are vapors and gases from the skin and lungs, princi- 
pally Co._, and vapor of water, solid particles of scaly 
epiphelium from the skin, fibres of cotton, wool, etc., 
bits of hair, wood, coal, chalk-dust, and many other 
things which have a tendency to enter the blood through 
the delicate air-cells in the lungs, if gaseous, and to 
lodge in the air-passages, or be drawn into the lungs, if 
solid, there to irritate by their presence, and poison the 
system by their decay." 

There are also many micro-organisms in the air. 
Kottlemann * tells of an instance where in every cubic 
metre of air there were 2,000 bacteria before school 
began, and 35,000 at the end of school hours. 

In a small, compact volume entitled "Dust and its 
Dangers," Dr. T. Mitchel Prudden treats this matter 
exhaustively, and, while showing that nature has several 
definite methods of preventing serious injury to the 
human organism by bacteria, it is made clear that too 
great care cannot be taken in providing air that is free 
from disease germs. Much trouble with the bronchial 
tubes, throat, and larynx is caused those who teach in 
ill-ventilated and dusty school-rooms. 

Many of those noxious and poisonous elements which 
find their way into the air of the school-room are illu- 
sive and not easily measured. As the chief element of 
impurity is carbonic acid, this is commonly taken as a 
measure of impurity and various tests are used to deter- 
mine the amount. Pure air contains 4 volumes of 
carbonic acid gas in 10,000, and 8 in 10,000 is the 
highest allowed for good sanitation. Not long ago a 

* "School Hygiene," Kottlemann. 



60 School Management 

State inspector in Massachusetts ordered new ventilation 
apparatus for a new school building. According to law 
an appeal was made to the local board of health, who, 
after a hearing, reported that the order was unnecessary. 
The State examiner made tests of air from each floor 
with the following results : 

Air from the first floor, where there were thirty-nine 
children, contained 15 volumes of carbonic acid in 10,- 
000. The air from the second-floor room, occupied by 
forty-four children, contained 32 volumes. That from 
another first-floor room yielded 36 volumes. These 
facts are the more startling when we are told that the 
samples were taken in November, the first after the 
windows had been closed for ten minutes, the second 
while the windows were open four inches, and the third 
after the windows had been closed for twenty minutes. 
It is evident that in each case the air was unfit for 
respiration. It should be kept in mind also that people 
assembled at any time, as in church or in school, are not 
conscious of the deterioration of the air, because it is 
gradual, unless they pass out of the room and return. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

X. Hygiene as a matter of private and public concern. 
a. The educational use of school grounds. 

3. The school-room. Arrangement of furniture, etc. 

4. Windows and shades. 

5. The use of corridors and staircases. 

6. What details make a school-house home-like ? 

7. The relation of ventilation to respiration. 



CHAPTER V 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS (Continued) 

1. — Methods of Heating and Ventilation, 

The large open fireplace used in the one-roomed 
school-liouse of twenty years ago is conceded to have 
afforded excellent ventilation. It cannot be praised as 
highly as a means of heating. The air-tight stove which 
succeeded it, whether used in the dwelling-house or in 
the school, had Httle to commend it. Practically the 
same air was heated over and over. Many rural schools 
still have nothing better than this. When proper 
thought is given to the subject, however, the stove is 
provided with a jacket extending from the floor one- 
half the way to the ceiling. At the floor is a register 
with a fresh-air duct extending under the floor to the 
outer wall of the building. The air thus enclosed be- 
tween the stove and its jacket passes up into the room, 
and fresh air is drawn in from outside to take its place. 
The open draught of the stove draws out the vitiated air 
near the floor, thus creating circulation. A foul-air 
duct at the floor, connected with the chimney which is 
warm, is better for the egress of bad air than the stove 
draught. 

In the construction of rural schools of one room, 
especially when fuel is plentiful, a fireplace should be 

61 



62 School Management 

provided and used during the spring and autumn, when 
only a small amount of heat is required. 

In large school-houses, heated by steam or hot water, 
both direct and indirect methods of heating are used. 
The first, which employs pipes or registers, may be 
used only to supplement indirect heating. In the cold- 
est weather, and at night, it is an economical method of 
keeping up the temperature. 

By the indirect method fresh air is carried into the 
building through large ducts, containing stacks of radi- 
ating surface, and directly into the rooms through regis- 
ters which are usually placed near the ceiling. The 
impure air is carried out through a register usually 
placed directly underneath the incoming air, by means 
of separate ducts made somewhat larger than those pro- 
vided for fresh air. Thus a school-room, heated and 
ventilated in this way, has a volume of fresh air con- 
stantly entering the room and an equal volume of im- 
pure air constantly passing out. 

A gravity system is one where the draught necessary 
for withdrawing the foul air is caused by a heated chim- 
ney or duct. In every large building this method is 
not adequate or reliable, and ventilating fans are used 
either as a means of forcing the fresh air into the build- 
ing, or of drawing out the foul air, or both. 

In thus stating in the briefest manner possible some 
of the main facts connected with warming and ventilat- 
ing, it is assumed that teachers will study carefully, in 
connection with their principal, the particular system 
upon which they have to depend. Ignorance and neg- 
lect too often prevent the successful working of the ven- 
tilating apparatus, while care and attention will secure 



Physical Conditions 63 

favorable results. Artificially heated air is usually too 
dry and tends to affect unfavorably the membrane of 
the mouth, the throat, and the lungs. Various meth- 
ods have been employed to humidify the air of school- 
rooms, none of which is altogether satisfactory. The 
best plan is probably that of discharging steam, in mod- 
erate quantities, into the cold-air duct. The practical 
end to be obtained is to make the inside air conform as 
nearly as possible in respect to humidity to that out- 
side, so that persons passing in and out are not subject 
to too sudden changes. 

Even when the building is poorly equipped for ven- 
tilation a great deal can be done by teachers to prevent 
injury to health. Windows and doors may be opened 
every haK hour while the pupils engage in marching, 
light games, or gymnastics. Boards, five or six inches 
in width, placed under the windows are a well-known 
device. Still better are hoods at the top of the win- 
dows, closely fitting the sash, so that when the windows 
are opened from the top the air is deflected toward the 
ceiling, and is gradually diffused throughout the room 
without falling too directly on the heads of the pupils. 

In all this work of securing pure air of the proper 
quality pupils should be asked to co-operate and should 
assist the teacher in every effort to secure the best that 
is possible from the facilities at hand. In the high- 
school, pupils pursuing chemistry and physics may find 
a variety of problems in testing air, under various con- 
ditions, in respect to dryness and purity, the amount 
received and discharged, and the conditions in these 
respects as affected by the weather and prevailing 
winds. 



64 School Management 

2. — Janitor Service. 

Under this heading we may include everything per- 
taining to the care of the building which is beyond the 
function of the teachers. In the first place, the office 
of janitor should be given the importance it deserves. 
He should be a man of intelligence, courteous bearing, 
good habits, thoroughly faithful and interested in his 
work, with some mechanical ability, and prompt and 
energetic in responding to every just call. He should 
be treated with respect by teachers and pupils, and some 
effort should be made to show just appreciation when 
unusually good service is given. 

A superintendent does well to call together his jani- 
tors from time to time in somewhat the same way that 
he does his teachers, and consider with them the various 
kinds of work they have to perform. They are glad to 
compare notes respecting their methods of sweeping and 
cleaning, and helpful suggestions are often made. The 
chief advantage of such meetings is that the service is 
elevated and dignified, and so janitors come to have in- 
creased pride in their vocation. Colonel Waring suc- 
ceeded in lifting the subject of street cleaning in New 
York City to a plane of scientific and economic impor- 
tance, and in one way and another made all his workers 
share in the feeling that they were responsible for the 
lives and health of the people to a great extent. So it 
should be in every school. No degradation or disre- 
spect should be attached to a class of manual toil which 
is indispensable to health, to comfort, and the proper 
care of school property. 

The janitor should be appointed upon the recommenda- 



Physical Conditions 65 

tion of the principal and should be directly responsible 
to him. The principal is, of course, in turn responsi- 
ble for the care of the building to the superintendent 
and school board. A system which places the janitors 
and care of the buildings under some other municipal 
authority is vicious and should be sharply attacked. 

How important an office the janitor fills appears if 
we enumerate the duties which properly belong to him. 

1. He should have entire charge of the school build- 
ing and grounds. He should be responsible for their 
care at all times. He should see that everything is kept 
in proper order, and should promptly report to the prin- 
cipal all injuries to the property whether wilful or ac- 
cidental. 

2. All corridors and staircases need to be swept daily. 
School-rooms should be swept at least three times a 
week, and daily if circumstances require it. The jani- 
tor, as in ordinary housekeeping, should have cloths to 
throw over teachers' desks and tables containing books 
and other apparatus. The best rule for sweeping and 
dusting is a general one which calls for a high standard 
and permits the janitor to use his best judgment. It 
has been found by experience that a school-house is 
much better cared for when its tidiness becomes a mat- 
ter of personal pride with the janitor. 

3. It is desirable that corridors, staircases, and class- 
rooms be washed as often as once a week. A few years 
ago, in some cities, the washing of the school-room floors 
was unheard of. Sanitary science, working through 
health boards, has brought about a marked change in 
this direction, and in some towns and cities the house- 
keeping in the schools is equal to that in the best 



66 School Management 

homes. Windows, as a rule, need to be washed once a 
month. Furniture of various kinds, including pupils' 
desks and chairs, should be wiped over with sulpho- 
napthol, or some other authorized antiseptic, at least 
twice a year, and oftener where contagious diseases are 
prevalent. Banisters, hand-rails, and door-knobs should 
be cleaned weekly in the same way. 

Crude oil, which is comparatively inexpensive, may 
be used for this purpose. Furniture should be wiped 
with a dry cloth after oil has been applied. Just before 
the summer vacation, all iron and other metal work 
should be wiped with the same material. 

Crude oil has also been found excellent for the floors. 
By introducing a small amount of burnt umber, the color 
of the floors may be darkened to match the wainscot- 
ing. A small quantity of the oil should be applied to 
the floor by means of a mop, and afterward the floor 
should be thoroughly wiped with a dry mop or cloth. 
If the floors are thus treated once or twice each term, 
there is comparatively little dust, and as little injury to 
clothing as from any of the floor preparations now on 
the market. 

Emphasis is given to this side of the janitor's work 
because dust has been an ever-present and insidious 
form of evil in the school-house, producing distress and 
disease. It has been discovered within the last few 
years that many of the infectious diseases, such as con- 
sumption, typhoid fever, Asiatic cholera, and diphtheria, 
are caused by bacteria which live and float in the air. 
In order to overcome the pestilential influence of germ- 
bearing dust in the school, it is found wise, in the care 
of large buildings, to provide the janitor with one or 



Physical Conditions 67 

more assistants whose whole time is spent in scrubbing 
and cleaning. 

4. The janitor must usually take charge of the heat- 
ing plant and give special attention to the heating and 
ventilating of the several rooms. He has to visit the 
different rooms as occasion requires and see to the 
temperature, and that all fresh-air ducts and inlets are 
perfectly clean and wholesome. He must also regularly 
inspect the sanitaries, and use scrupulous care in keep- 
ing them as clean and odorless as possible. 

5. The janitor must have charge of the yard and 
grounds, and, with such assistance as may be furnished 
him by pupils and others, must care for shrubs, flowers, 
and grass. On public occasions he should aid in every 
possible way in making visitors welcome and comfort- 
able. 

Thus it can be seen that a wise and efficient janitor 
is hardly second to the principal in promoting the 
health and welfare of all in the school. A high grade 
of talent is needed for such positions. The compensa- 
tion should be such as to make the incumbent self-re- 
specting, and enable him to support a family in comfort. 

3. — General Sanitation and Hygiene. 

This is an appropriate time to mention some of the 
ways in which the school may conserve health by giving 
pupils practical experience in matters of hygiene. 

1. As a nature lesson pupils should be instructed in 
water supply, and the importance of drinking only that 
which is pure. Wells which have been closed and not 
emptied for a long time are full of danger. Children 



68 School Management 

should be frequently cautioned in regard to when and 
where they should drink. Individual drinking-cups are 
indispensable if the best care is to be used. 

2. It should be remembered that in many schools, as 
in many homes, the lighting is bad, and care should be 
taken in the use of books not to strain the eyes. Pupils 
should be trained to sit and hold the book at a proper 
distance from the eye so the light will come from the 
left. Every teacher should use the ordinary test-cards, 
containing different sizes of print, to discover any cases 
of near-sightedness, or of eyesight otherwise defective, 
that may happen to be in the class. Such cases^ should 
be reported promptly to parents, who should be urged 
to consult an oculist. Such children should also be 
seated as near the front as possible. 

Simple tests of hearing made by holding a watch at 
different distances will enable the teacher to easily detect 
any defect that there may be in this sense. 

The general use of free books and pencils has tended 
to increase the danger of infection. It is desirable that 
pupils should use their own or the same pencils. Phy- 
sicians recommend that both books and pencils be dis- 
infected from time to time, by the use of a light recepta- 
cle in which they are subjected to some disinfectant, as 
formaline vapor. 

While the general use of blackboards is valuable in 
the school there is no reason why a large portion of 
the written work should not be done upon paper, thus 
avoiding to a large extent the chalk-dust, which is espe- 
cially injurious to sensitive throats and lungs. 

The use of slates is accompanied by objectionable 
and filthy habits, and the fact that they are being rap- 



Physical Conditions 69 

idly discarded in all schools marks an important ad- 
vance in the practice of hygiene. 

Teachers are justified in insisting that pupils should 
be sent to school in a cleanly condition. Not only 
should the clothing be decent, but the children should 
be required to bathe at home, and the parents should be 
expected to see that this requirement is carried out. 

If the homes of the children are such that this is im- 
possible it is apparent that the school cannot be decent 
and healthful unless it is provided with baths. The 
schools of Europe have made more progress in this di- 
rection than has been made here, but in the future the 
school-house located in the slums of our cities cannot 
be classed as complete unless it has simple yet effective 
bathing facilities. 

Of equal importance is the question of proper nu- 
trition. Many years ago it was found necessary, in the 
poorer sections of London, to provide children with at 
least one palatable meal during the school day. The 
writer remembers visiting a large school in Stockholm, 
where, during the noon-hour, in a large hall on the 
upper floor, several hundred school children were given 
a lunch which they themselves had assisted in prepar- 
ing. It is evident that children whose bodies are 
poorly nourished derive little benefit from the school, 
and that when circumstances demand it free food is 
just as appropriate as free books. However much our 
reason may dissent from the idea of free baths and free 
lunches, certain it is that we cannot have free common- 
school education universally and successfully applied 
without them. 

The study of physiology and hygiene, with attention to 



70 School Management 

the evil effects of alcohol and narcotics, should be part 
of every curriculum. Concerning the quantity and qual- 
ity of this instruction there is the widest difference of 
opinion. 

A committee of twelve persons, the chairman of which 
is the Secretary of the State Board of Education in 
Massachusetts, has made a preliminary report on a 
course of study for the Massachusetts public schools 
which avoids extremes and yet covers the essential 
points. Introductory to that report are certain general 
suggestions which are given here as indicating the atti- 
tude to be desired on the part of both teacher and 
pupil. 

4. — General Suggestions. 

1. The child's interests and point of view should 
always be kept in mind. 

2. The work should be formal in the sense of hav- 
ing definite times and places for enough lessons to cover 
the subject. 

3. In addition to the formal work, much incidental 
and related work should be done. 

4. Both the formal and the incidental work should 
grow out of the child's every-day life in the school, on 
the playground, and in the home. 

5. The teacher should be on the watch for opportu- 
nities to inculcate hygienic ideas of living. 

6. The lessons should be brief, simple, and conver- 
sational in form. 

7. The teacher should be a model of hygienic living. 
Bad postures, untidiness in person or dress, the use of 
tobacco or of alcoholic drinks — all such things in the 



Physical Conditions 71 

teacher are serious handicaps to good hygienic work 
with the child. 

8. The school-room should be a model in all that re- 
lates to cleanliness, order, ventilation, heating, and light- 
ing. The children should help to keep it so, and un- 
derstand how and why everything is done for that 
purpose. 

Note. — Every primary teacher should know enough 
of chemistry and physics to be able to understand thor- 
oughly the heating, ventilating, and lighting of her own 
school-room. 

9. The children should be led to practise with pleas- 
ure the laws of personal hygiene which they learn. 

10. Mothers' meetings may be profitably held for the 
discussion of the physical well-being of the children. 

When parents find that children are being taught 
things that will make them stronger and healthier, they 
are usually glad to co-operate with such teaching. 

11. The teacher should judiciously consider the home 
conditions of each child. 

12. Special lessons should be arranged to meet such 
adverse conditions as may be found in the home ; but 
great care and tact should be exercised that the child 
shall not be led to feel that his own home and parents 
are subjected to criticism. 

Note. — The fact that parents may not use good Eng- 
lish should not prevent teaching the child correct lan- 
guage, neither should the use of alcohol or tobacco or 
other violation of hygienic laws by anyone in the home 
prevent teaching the child in school the danger thus 
involved. 

13. The teacher should take the children precisely 



72 School Management 

where they are, and help them to grow into better hab- 
its of physical life. Evolution, and not revolution, is 
the natural method of development. 

14. Instruction should be mainly positive, and of a 
character to guide in the formation of right habits. 

15. Other things being equal, that teacher will accom- 
plish most for the children who has the largest sympa- 
thies, and keeps in the closest touch with both children 
and parents. 

16. Such simple anatomical and physiological ex- 
planations should be given as are within the grasp of the 
children, and as are necessary to make the teaching 
clear. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Direct and indirect heating. 

2 The principle of the gravity system. 

3 Relations of teachers and janitors. 

4. Relation of pupils to janitors. 

5. Cleanliness of pupils. 

6. Definite means of improving the hygiene of the school 



CHAPTER VI 
ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 

The school board, the superintendent, the principal, 
and the teachers are all factors in the organization of 
the school. The welfare of every pupil is involved, so 
that all patrons are deeply concerned in the nature and 
the kind of mechanism which the school becomes. 

That in the past too much attention has been given 
to perfecting the machinery, and too little to individual 
opportunity, is generally agreed. In the rapid growth 
of cities the graded system sprang into existence as the 
best method of caring for large numbers of children. 
During its earlier stages, principals and teachers were 
often untrained ; their knowledge of the child, his nat- 
ure, and his interests was limited ; methods and appli- 
ances were crude, and, in the rather servile deference 
to the idea of a graded system, lamentable errors were 
committed. Now there is a large volume of experience 
at hand. We are no longer worshipping the fetich of 
system, but are humbly and thoughtfully studying the 
needs of children, and are trying to adapt means to end 
in a great variety of ways. In respect of grading, pro- 
motions, discipline, and incentives, professional judg- 
ment and common-sense are brought to bear, not merely 
upon the mass, but upon the individual. Formerly a 

73 , 



74 School Management 

child's fate was settled before his case was considered, 
now it is not settled until after consideration, and, even 
then, is often reopened and reconsidered as occasion 
may require. 

This view of present conditions implies flexibility and 
broad-mindedness in all school organization. It implies 
also an avoidance of extreme measures, and the ardent 
advocates of specially unique and peculiar ways of do- 
ing things must not be offended if schools generally 
seek to extract the best from all methods, yet decline to 
commit themselves to schemes which may be surpass- 
ingly excellent in one or two particulars, but fail to do 
justice in other respects. We should never be ashamed 
to discard the old for the new, if we are sure it is better ; 
but wise people will avoid those sudden shifts and 
erratic tendencies which do harm to the schools, and 
tend to discountenance them in the public eye. 

1. — Distribution of Authority, 

In rural schools where there is little supervision the 
teacher has large freedom and responsibility in classify- 
ing his school and arranging his work. In town and 
city schools there is a sequence of authority and respon- 
sibility which is always to be kept in mind. The school 
boards are responsible to the people who elected them. 
The superintendent derives his authority from the 
school board, by whom he is held responsible for what 
he does. The superintendent, in turn, delegates power 
and authority to the principals, for the exercise of which 
he holds them responsible. The principals interpret 
the general policy of the administration to the teachers, 



Organization of the School 75 

and it becomes their duty to see that they conform to 
the general plan. 

It is apparent that the best results cannot be expected 
unless there is loyalty and integrity in every link of this 
chain of responsibility. Teachers must be loyal to the 
principal; the principal to the superintendent; the 
superintendent to the school board, and the school 
board to the citizens. Furthermore, the authority must 
be so distributed that all, within proper limits, have 
freedom of action. The school board that does not give 
the superintendent both freedom and power commits a 
fundamental error, and one that has proved an obstacle 
to progress in many localities. The principal both 
needs and deserves to have elbow-room, while faithfully 
and loyally supporting the superintendent in his general 
policy, and he should be encouraged to take the initiative 
in any plan that will make the life in his school 
stronger and richer. What freedom means to the teacher 
has been considered in a former chapter. 

It may be said, in passing, that the efficacy of a cen- 
tralized school management, such as several large 
American cities have adopted, will be tested by the de- 
gree to which the superintendent succeeds in controlling 
the huge forces under his command without excessive 
red tape. If centralization of power should mean such 
a refinement of rules, and such curtailment of individual 
freedom, and such exasperating espionage as to depress 
the spirits and cripple the free action of teachers, there 
would certainly be a reaction in favor of the earlier and 
more democratic methods. 



76 School Management 



2. — Meetings of Principals. 

A superintendent is powerless unless the principals 
second his efforts, and, being loyal and faithful them- 
selves, bring their teachers into the same attitude. Con- 
versely, the superintendent cannot expect the support 
of his principals unless he takes them into his confidence, 
consults with them frequently; and inspires in them both 
respect and affection. 

The schools of a community well express in their or- 
ganization and working what is wholesome and health- 
ful only when superintendent and principals are in 
frequent conference and consider together in turn all 
vital questions. A principal, in hearing a problem dis- 
cussed from different points of view, will often see things 
in a broader light and will revise his opinions. For the 
sake of reasonable uniformity, there should always be 
mutual concession and willingness to abide by the de- 
cision of the superintendent after all have had their 
say. 

Superintendents and principals cannot successfully 
co-operate in the supervision of teaching unless there is 
practical agreement on their part respecting the ends to 
be sought. Teachers should never be permitted to dis- 
cover any lack of harmony or concert of action in the 
supervising officers. This suggests that supervision 
should address itself to things that are fundamental and 
important and that minor details should be left largely 
to teachers. 



Organization of the School 77 



3. — Grading of Pupils. 

In rural schools the classification of pupils is often 
difficult. If close grading is attempted too many divis- 
ions is the result. It has been found by experience 
that a teacher can have four or five divisions or classes 
in the essential studies, provided the recitation periods 
are made short, say, ten minutes in the lower classes, and 
fifteen to twenty minutes in the higher classes. 

In all schools pupils do not require close grading in 
music, drawing, writing, handwork, and nature study. 
Under the right conditions, forty pupils belonging to the 
same grade in an average city school can work together 
successfully. But in the more central studies, we will 
say, as reading, mathematics, geography, history, or 
language, the problem of grading becomes more pressing. 
Here, also, experience has been valuable. The evils 
growing out of grading by years, with its accompanying 
platoon and lock-step movement, have been greatly miti- 
gated. The marking system, with its terrifying percent- 
ages, has either been abolished or has been modified so 
as to serve simply as a record for teachers and parents. 
Annual uniform examinations for promotion, or those 
held at stated times for the same purpose, have largely 
given way to written exercises and tests which are un- 
announced and which are for the purposes of teaching 
and training. Courses of study are broader, richer, and 
more flexible. But the greatest change has come in the 
fact that educators see that the school has a moral 
rather than a scholastic aim. They see that the best 
fruits of the school cannot be tested by a written ex- 



78 School Management 

amination or measured by a system of marks. Would 
that these changes, which mean so much to the welfare 
of children, were universal. Were it so, much less would 
be written about the grading of pupils, for that is always 
done upon a purely scholastic basis. 

There is considerable literature on the subject of 
grading and the promotion of pupils, and a variety of 
plans are advocated, all of which have something to 
commend them. We will briefly examine some of 
them. 

1. The Individual or Pueblo method.* This would 
to a large extent abolish class recitations and substitute 
longer study periods in which the individual student 
does advance work under the general direction of the 
teacher. This method, if logically applied, puts each 
student in a class by himself. It is claimed that under 
this system a pupil becomes more interested, enthusi- 
astic, and self-reliant. Not being required to work out 
of school, he has better health. It is also claimed a 
pupil does more work and becomes better able to master 
difficulties. 

This plan has met with considerable approval, but in 
certain quarters has been received with objections and 
even with derision. Its more obvious merits are that it 
permits quiet study under the eye of the teacher. As in 
the old-fashioned country school, it permits the in- 
dividual to go as fast as he is able and to acquire a mo- 
mentum that is not possible under ordinary circum- 
stances. It fails, however, to recognize the school as 
a social whole in which the members are working 
for others as well as for themselves. It also mini- 
* " The Ideal School," Preston W. Search. 



Organizatio?i of the School 79 

mizes the value of the recitation, which affords the best 
possible opportunity not only for social co-operation 
but for mental stimulus and attrition. To wholly ac- 
cept or reject this method is evidently a pedagogical 
error. Frequent silent-study periods, with the indi- 
vidual opportunity which they provide, should be a 
part of every school programme. In other words, the 
sacred principle that the individual should be respected 
and should not be made to conform to any pattern, ex- 
cept his own, is sound. 

2. The Elizabeth plan."^ Under this plan the pupils 
in a school-room are divided into four or five groups, 
and, by a frequent reclassification, those of similar 
ability are made to work together. Thus bright pupils 
are enabled to go on somewhat faster. When the plan 
is consistently carried out, groups of pupils are admitted 
to the high school whenever they are able to take up 
the work to be done there. It is claimed that under 
this plan time is saved for many pupils and thus the 
schools are administered more economically. The fact 
that younger pupils are often pushed beyond those of 
their own age has seemed to some to be an objection. 
There also appears to be a good deal of emphasis upon 
a purely knowledge standard, and it is claimed that if 
more attention were given to a character standard, there 
would be little demand for frequent classification, and 
the apparent differences in the abilities of children 
would not be so great. 

One of the best features of this method is that pupils 
have a larger proportion of their time in school in which 
to prepare their lessons, whereas in many schools nearly 
^ " The Grading of Schools," William J, Shearer. 



80 



School Management 



all the time is given to recitations, and the pupils have 
to do most of their studying out of school. 

• « „ „ 3. The Cambridge or 

double-track plan.* This is 
best described by quoting 
from the report of School 
Committee. 



(0 n 



M 4< 



A >i 



Mlddle^rcourse 




za 



UJC5 



■=5 

+JT3 
X <0 

CO (5 



r-5 



Arrow No. 1 indicates the 
4 years' course ; grades A, B, 
C, D. Arrow No. 2 indicates 
one of the 5 years' courses; 
grades A, B, 7, 8, 9, Arrow 
No, 3 indicates the other 6 
years' course; grades 4, 5, 6, 
C, D. Arrow No. 4 indicates 
the 6 years' course ; grades 4, 
6, 6, 7, 8, 9. 



Promotions in the Grammar 

Schools. 

The course of study is di- 
vided in two ways: (1) into 
six sections ; (2) into four 
sections ; each section cover- 
ing a year's work. Pupils 
taking the course in six years 
are classified in six grades, 
called the fourth, fifth, sixth, 
seventh, eighth, and ninth 
grades. Those taking it in 
four years are classified in 
four grades, called grades A, 
B, C, and D. When pupils 
are promoted to the grammar 
schools they begin the first 
year's work together. After 
two or three months they are 
separated into two divisions. 

One division advances more 

* Report of School Committee, 1897, 
— Cambridge, Mass, 



i 



Organization of the School 81 

rapidly than the other, and during the year completes 
one-fourth of the whole course of study. The other di- 
vision completes one-sixth of the course. 

During the second year the pupils in grade B are in 
the same room with the sixth grade. At the beginning 
of the year they are five months (one-half the school 
year) behind those in the sixth grade. After two or 
three months grade B is able to recite with the sixth 
grade, and at the end of the year both divisions have 
completed one-half the course of study — the one in two 
years, and the other in three years. The plan for 
the last half of the course is the same as for the first 
half, the grades being known as the seventh, eighth, 
and ninth in the one case, and as C and D in the 
other. 

There are also two ways of completing the course in 
five years : (1) any pupil who has completed one-half 
the course in two years may at the end of that time be 
transferred to the seventh grade, and finish the course 
in three years ; (2) any pupil who has completed one- 
half the course in three years may at the end of that 
time be transferred to grade C, and finish the course in 
two years. In both cases these changes can be made 
without omitting or repeating any part of the course. 
It is apparent that this method permits the able pupils 
to gain time, and that it facilitates grading. Whenever 
it is put in operation in a large school, one or more 
extra teachers are required. This is a worthy attempt 
to meet individual needs without seriously disturbing 
the school machinery. 

4. An old and very common method is that of divid- 
ing the pupils of a room into two or three divisions in 



82 School Management 

the essential studies, yet keeping them together in 
others. It is customary in the first grade to have 
groups of not more than ten children ; in the second 
grade there are frequently divisions of fifteen pupils; 
in grades above, the more common practice is to have 
two divisions, one studying while the other is reciting. \ 
Keclassifications and promotions are effected either an- 
nually or semi-annually. Instead of promoting to the 
high school at mid-year, the advanced division is given 
additional work and the entire class goes forward to- 
gether. 

5. One class in a room above the primary, with occa- 
sional individual promotions from class to class when 
ability has been shown and sufficient advance has been 
performed to warrant promotion. This plan has failed 
to give the best results, because the course of study has 
often been lacking in breadth and richness, and teachers 
have been made to feel that all pupils must do precisely 
the same work in kind and amount. This is a good 
time to suggest that in all elementary teaching the 
course of study should be so flexible and the daily les- 
sons so arranged that the brighter and stronger pupils 
may do more than those less able. In all the world's 
activity this is a universal rule. It is, therefore, wise to 
have in any school supplementary exercises to fill up 
the waiting moments of the quicker pupils, as, for in- 
stance, extra copies to be written, more specimens to be 
examined, additional models to be constructed, more 
complex objects to be drawn, correlated questions in 
geography and history to be investigated and reported 
upon. It being always understood that the additional 
work is not to be undertaken until the regular prescribed 



Organization of the School 83 

task has been performed. This is a telling way of 
moderating the evils of the graded system, and is 
specially applicable to the plan of grading last de- 
scribed. 

The advocates of individualism and frequent reclassi- 
fication overlook the fact that bright pupils can make 
progress in more than one direction. There is value in 
breadth and intensity of study as well as in mere exten- 
sion. A person may travel around the world in sixty 
days and have less to show for it than he who spends 
the same length of time travelling from Naples to Flor- 
ence, wisely employing his faculties in trying to inter- 
pret what he sees and hears. 

It is evident that all the plans of grading heretofore 
described have excellent features. It is a mistake, how- 
ever, to claim too much for any one of them. The spirit 
in which it is interpreted and applied determines the 
success of any plan. Able pupils, like able men, have 
other missions than simply pushing themselves forward. 
The world to-day is suffering from an excess of selfish- 
ness. The highest and best things in life are under- 
valued. Altruism is too little in evidence. There is 
little virtue in a hurried journey through school and 
college ; it too often results in a physical breakdown or 
in an impairment of the nervous system, while the slow 
boy who was left behind in the grammar school, goes 
on and is graduated from the high school with muscle 
and nerve in good condition for life's battle. It is the 
old story of the hare and the tortoise. 

We have given quite enough space to this subject of 
grading. Due consideration for the human, the moral, 
the social, and the hygienic aims of education will ever 



84 School Management 

tend to lessen the emphasis given to mere form and 
system. The increased attention now given to all kinds of 
handwork, including gardening and household economy, 
as well as to art, music, and nature study brings into 
stronger relief the fact that mere acquisition is only an 
incident in the truest development of the individual. 



4. — The Promotion of Pupils, 

After what has been said this topic needs no extended 
treatment. The things most important to be kept in 
mind may be briefly summarized : 1. Groups of pupils 
of about the same age and ability should work together 
for a reasonable length of time, doing their work faith- 
fully, helping each other, aiding the teacher ; thus gain- 
ing not only knowledge and power but also social con- 
sciousness and strength. 2. Pupils should be promoted 
to do other and higher work when they have proved 
their fitness by doing faithfully and well what has been 
assigned them. 3. The teacher's judgment, based upon 
the observation of pupils in their daily work of study 
and reciting, should be the determining factor. 4. A 
final examination as a test for promotion either from 
grammar or high school or from high school to college 
has many objections. It is too often unfairly adminis- 
tered. It practically ignores the moral element in educa- 
tion. It enslaves the teacher and narrows teaching. It 
is unhygienic, as it causes anxiety and worry and puts 
too great strain upon a child when he is least able to 
bear it. Even if the institution to which the pupil is 
accredited does require an examination, a great deal of 
deference should be paid to the opinion of his former 



Organization of the School 85 

teachers, and if that is favorable he should at least be 
taken upon probation. 

Further reference will be made to this subject under 
the heads of "Incentives" and "Examinations." The 
more we study the subject of grading and promotion the 
more clearly we shall see that it becomes of less con- 
sequence in proportion as we comprehend the social 
and ethical factors in the school, and give due valuation 
to the potencies of the child's higher nature which find 
expression through the head, the hand, and the heart. 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Has there been too much system in schools? 

2. Are school teachers too conservative, and why? 

3. The sense of responsibility as a stimulus to good work. 

4. The trae field of supervision. 

5. Things to be considered in grading pupils. In what sense 
is the school both individual and social? 

6. How may some pupils do more work than others ? 



CHAPTER VII 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL 

School government, while as important as ever, re- 
ceives far less attention as a distinct purpose, and is 
accomplished by far different methods than formerly. 
In no other respect does the modern school differ so 
much from that of former times. In the good school of 
to-day the teacher seeks to promote a life so full of 
interest, application, and industry, that the energies of 
the pupils are absorbed, so that there is little time or 
opportunity for misconduct. Good manners and orderly 
conduct are simply incidental features to great under- 
takings, which cannot be carried on without them. The 
modern curriculum provides abundant work, and this 
is the true preventive of idleness and disorder. 

1. — The Power of Personality, 

In Chapters IV. and V. qualifications of a good teacher 
are enumerated. Possessed of these he can assume the 
leadership so essential in every school-room. He will 
rule, not by fear but by love, and " Perfect love casteth 
out fear," as well as many other evil tendencies which 
are contrary to right feeling and living. 

The teacher should, therefore, from the very begin- 
ning of his acquaintance with a new class, put his best 

86 



The Government of the School 87 

self at work, and, by the power of his own personality, 
seek to enlist the hearty, cheerful co-operation of every 
pupil. 

2. — Plan with Care. 

It should not be inferred from what has been said 
that the principal or the teacher can afford to over- 
look any practical details affecting the school. Gen- 
ius when analyzed is usually found to consist in 
foresight and careful planning. It is so in military 
affairs and in trade. The wise teacher will, therefore, 
plan his campaign even to the smallest detail, so that 
he can conduct the business of the school with despatch, 
and so that every emergency is provided for. He must 
not be taken off his guard, at least until he has thorough 
control. Orators, musicians, and poets, who do fine 
things so easily and so naturally that they seem to be 
inspired, are usually those who have labored in solitude, 
and have learned to give every piece of work their most 
patient and solicitous care. 

How often have teachers been known to conduct a 
devotional exercise at the opening of school, with such 
evident lack of preparation and such apparent indiffer- 
ence to its real purpose, that not only pupils but visitors 
are impressed most unfavorably. It is said that the late 
Edwin Booth, the great actor, once recited the Lord's 
Prayer in a theatre so that many in the great audience 
were moved to tears. A principal or teacher may open 
the school in the morning in a manner so impressive 
and helpful as to set the pace for the entire day. Every 
movement and every exercise needs to be carefully con- 
sidered and arranged. 



88 School Management 

3. — Act with Courage, 

The weakj timid teacher is a failure from the start. 
Unless he can overcome his faint-heartedness he would 
better change his vocation. The teacher knowing what 
he wishes to do should set about it bravely and ener- 
getically. Knowing what commands he is to give, he 
should give them in a tone of voice to be heard and 
obeyed by all. As a rule, it is a mistake to repeat di- 
rections or commands. Pupils should be trained to 
hear and to act when the direction is given. 

With this suggestion as to the absolute need of cour- 
age should go an intimation in favor of plenty of 
reserve. The garrulous, nagging teacher causes disaster 
and ruin. In school as elsewhere, "A word fitly spoken 
is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 

Place Confidence in Pupils, 

The wise teacher will, from the first, not only trust 
pupils who are undoubtedly loyal, but will also show his 
confidence in those who are either reserved or who show 
some signs of opposition to his policy. He can afford 
to wait for such, and while waiting show them that he is 
both generous and expectant. It is not well to make a 
personal issue of every act not strictly in accord with 
the standards of the school. In fact, the more imper- 
sonal the discipline of the school is the better. We 
often make people better by believing in them, and by 
letting them know that we believe in them. A kind 
word spoken to a doubtful pupil often conquers him. 
What a doleful mistake it is to scold individual pupils 



The Government of the School 89 

in the presence of the whole class ! At such times a 
teacher too often exceeds justice, and speaks bitter 
words which leave a sting behind difficult to be effaced. 
As far as possible all serious breaches of conduct on 
the part of individual pupils are to be treated privately, 
when by tact and skill the teacher will win the pupil's 
confidence, and make him his strong and ardent ally. 



4. — Be Kind and Syrnpathetic. 

How little a teacher knows of the sorrows, frailties, 
and trials hidden in the breasts of those who come 
under his charge. Every home has its adversities and 
distresses. Some even have disasters and miseries, and 
in these the children share, and often bear the marks of 
them in their faces, and the burdens of them in their 
hearts. Eich and poor live under shadows which can- 
not be escaped, and which affect the disposition and the 
temper. Kindness and sympathy pay large dividends in 
every walk in life, and especially in the school. The 
touch of a kind-hearted teacher is a power at once 
subtle and unique. 

5. — The School Virtues, 

It has been thought necessary in the past to give 
special attention to certain forms of conduct and traits 
of character, and to teach them by means of precepts 
and concrete examples. While the writer believes that 
these virtues are the fruit of life, and are developed not 
by teaching, but by living and practising them, it seems 
well at this point to enumerate them, so that as we pro- 



90 School Management 

ceed to consider the larger phases of school government, 
these school virtues will not be overlooked or neglected. 
Their chief importance lies in the fact that they stand for 
those fundamental habits which form so large a part o| 
our higher life. 

1. Promptness and punctuality. These virtues were 
never more essential than to-day, for life is rapid, 
things must be done quickly and on time, minutes 
and even seconds have definite value, and only he 
who is prompt and punctual can fit into the modem 
scheme. 

2. Care, neatness, and economy. The habit of thrift 
is of universal worth. It prevents haste, waste, and im- 
providence. It induces thoughtfulness and artistic ex- 
cellence in respect of personal effort as well as in what 
pertains to the welfare of the school community. Pu- 
pils should be neat, cleanly, and painstaking in all their 
work. 

3. Silence and obedience. We have already spoken 
of the necessity of reserve on the part of the teacher. 
How important that the child should early learn to 
restrain his impulse to speak, and should be quick to 
respond to the wishes and the directions of the teacher ! 
The old adage that "Speech is silver and silence is 
golden " has a wide application in the school. In this 
respect, as well as in regard to obedience, it is to be 
feared that the American home is deficient. The school 
must therefore be the more assiduous in promoting these 
virtues. Without obedience to law there can be no 
government, and no genuine social life. 

4. Attention and industry. These traits of character 
are also essential to success. They are perhaps com- 



The Government of the School 91 

prised in the word " strenuousness," so popular at 
present. The habit of alertness and unwearied exertion 
marks all those who win the great prizes in life, as well 
as that larger number who gain an honorable competence 
and confer benefits on their fellow-men. This habit 
should be gained in the school, and every activity in 
which the pupil engages should be an opportunity for 
adding something to it. 

5. Kindness and courtesy. These virtues are to be 
practised by pupils in their relations to teachers and 
each other. Pupils are also to be encouraged to act 
kindly and courteously at home and elsewhere. In the 
good school it is often observed that pupils seem to find 
pleasure in gentlemanly bearing and conduct. How 
delightful school life becomes when, in the class-rooms 
and halls, and on the playgrounds, gentle manners and 
mutual respect seem to be fixed habits. 

6. Truthfulness. Here certainly is a virtue which 
cannot be taught by precept or any other device. It 
represents rather a state of mind and heart which is to 
be reached by growth under the right conditions. The 
very young child does not apprehend the nature of 
truth, and no greater mistake can be made than to accuse 
him of lying or punish him. The entire school life 
should be so full of frankness and open-heartedness, and 
such a high premium should be given to truthfulness in 
its every form, that even those who are naturally weak in 
this virtue will become strong, and will learn to hate 
every kind of falsehood. 

It is readily seen that these school virtues are not to 
be treated apart from the daily life. Habits based upon 
them can be formed only slowly and gradually. There 



92 School Management 

will be frequent lapses and many discouragements, both 
for the individual and the teacher, and considerable faith 
is needed for carrying on this work of moral improve- 
ment. 

6. — Self-control and Self-government. 

As self-activity and self-development are the corner- 
stones of education, so self-control is the very beginning 
of right discipline. In former times the teacher sought 
to control his pupils, the modern aim is to have pupils 
control themselves. This can happen only when the 
teacher gives abundant opportunity for free choice. A 
virtue, like one's arm, will not grow and be strong without 
exercise. So growth, in all the virtues we have enumer- 
ated, is to be attained by finding constant occasion in 
the school life for their practice. The teacher will even 
permit pupils to make mistakes in order that they may 
correct them, and so become more thoughtful and care- 
ful. It is well to have a good understanding with pupils, 
explain to them frequently the nature and importance 
of self-control and self-direction, and even ask them to 
suggest ways in which they think they can improve and 
gain power in this direction. The teacher should re- 
frain from criticism or comment of a personal character, 
which would tend in any way to discourage effort. If a 
pupil needs to be reminded of his privilege and duty, 
a look is often much better than a word. In the 
silent-study period as well as in the recitation there 
is unceasing demand for self-control and self-repression. 
All the conditions, physical and moral, should be favor- 
able. Every encouragement should be given by the 
teacher, for success here means a successful school. 



The Government of the School 93 

Games and excursions give another set of opportunities, 
somewhat different, but none the less valuable. 

By these means self-government may be obtained in 
the school, and by no others. In its attainment there is 
constant appeal to those qualities which make the good 
citizen, and the school becomes less artificial and more 
like a type of free, self -governed society. 



7.— The School City Plan, 

It is quite a number of years since certain schools and 
colleges began to experiment in various plans for self- 
government. The one best known, which has gained 
considerable favor, is called the School City. It has 
been tried in grammar, high, and normal schools with 
quite a little success. Although varying somewhat in 
details, this plan usually provides a representative gov- 
ernment, organized and carried on by the pupils. The 
several classes elect delegates to a general assembly or 
council, which elects the necessary executive officers and 
makes laws which they are to execute. In some in- 
stances the scheme has been elaborated so as to provide 
two legislative bodies, resembling the Senate and House 
of Kepresentatives of a State, or the Common Council 
and Board of Aldermen of a city. The principal of a 
school often has the right of veto. There is sometimes 
a Court of Appeals, of which the teachers are members. 

This plan of the School City has met with varying 
success, according as the teachers have shown good 
judgment, and have given the right guidance and over- 
sight. Perhaps the most striking instance of this kind 
of organization, as a means of moral betterment, is seen 



94 School Management 

in the George Junior Eepublic. Here a considerable 
number of boys of rather unfortunate heritage and train- 
ing have gained experience in self-control and in con- 
forming to laws, thus acquiring good moral standards, 
and laying the foundations of a good life. 



8. — Democracy and Law. 

Many failures have resulted in attempting to establish 
self-government in schools. Frequently a too sudden 
transition has been made from the old forms of disci- 
pline where pupils were held with an iron hand, to the 
new, where they were thrown somewhat upon their own 
devices. It has been found that backward peoples, like 
the Filipinos, cannot be given all the functions of 
democratic government too suddenly. They must learn 
what free government implies, and must be permitted 
to acquire ability to govern themselves by gradual ex- 
perience. So it is with youth, and especially with those 
whose education has been largely upon the streets, or 
who have hitherto received no culture in responsible 
conduct. 

Moreover, it has often occurred that the school, in at- 
tempting to realize the conception of true self-govern- 
ment, has exceeded those limitations which long ex- 
perience has found to be necessary in all democratic 
society. For example : Every citizen in America is by 
no means free to do as he pleases or as he thinks proper. 
Far from it. He is hedged about by a complex network 
of laws of the national, State, and municipal govern- 
ments, the violation of which is attended with severe 
penalties . Courts of j ustice stand ready to deal prompt- 



IVie Government of the School 95 

ly and sternly with all offenders. The right-minded 
citizen, pursuing the round of his daily duties, is not con- 
scious that grim justice is thus enthroned. If he thinks 
of it at all, he realizes that through laws his rights and 
privileges are protected, and because of them he lives in 
safety and security. In other words, democracy and 
law are not incompatible, but are rather complementary 
to each other. The school may wisely adopt the forms 
of civic order, but this should be done under such restric- 
tions, and with such provisions for final justice, that 
the system will not break down, because freedom has 
been turned into license, and democracy into anarchy. 
Back of all the activities of the school are the authority 
and power which reside in the principal and his assist- 
ants. There are also the common laws of decency, hon- 
esty, and good behavior, which are in force always and 
everywhere. 

9. — TJie Incorrigible. 

Is the presence of the incorrigible an indication that 
something is wrong in the school? Doubtless it is so 
in many cases, but not always. Every possible effort 
should be made to save to the school those who are 
handicapped by bad heredity, evil habits, and vicious 
dispositions. The teacher will endeavor by private ap- 
peal and kindly intercourse, not only in the school but 
outside of it, to reach such. He will try to have his 
best pupils assist in this endeavor. But there is a limit 
beyond which he cannot go. The good of the whole 
school must be taken into account, and if its good repute 
and moral tone require it, the incorrigible one must be 
eliminated. This act is sometimes too long delayed. 



96 School Management 

both for the welfare of the school and the individual in 
question. Nearly all large communities make some pro- 
vision for such cases in parental or reform schools. It 
cannot be urged too strongly that an incorrigible youth, 
who perchance is so by reason of some infirmity for 
which he is hardly responsible, shall be placed in a home 
school where there are only a few others, and where at 
the hands of a kindly Christian teacher, under a system 
of firm moral training, he is started upon the road to a 
good and useful life. 

10.— Character the End of Discipline, 

"We seek to have good schools and are ever seeking to 
make them better, but the real purpose of school gov- 
ernment is not the school merely, but the building of 
character in each individual pupil. We use discipline 
for that purpose. Many people in their superficial view 
of things are enthusiastic in their praise of schools 
which appear well because there is good order. The 
teacher may be a martinet, and discipline may be ob- 
tained through repressive or coercive measures, yet the 
power of tradition and custom is so strong, and people 
are so short-sighted and ignorant, that they esteem highly 
what in reality should be condemned. Even those who 
are not the most devoted followers of Herbart will admit 
that the great central aim of education is character. 
How, then, can we approve the methods of discipline \/ 
which not only prevent the exercise of right motives 
and noble aims but discourage and thwart the child in 
his natural and spontaneous efforts to do right ?, We 
]^a,ye suggested in a former chapter that a school inust 



The Government of the School 97 

not be over-systematized. This is applicable in any at- 
tempts to make discipline a means of character-building. 
Some movements and exercises in the school may be 
reduced to military precision, and become as it were au- 
tomatic, but the teacher's good judgment must decide 
when this kind of work is to end, for it certainly must 
end somewhere. The easiest way of disciplining a 
school is to reduce everything to mechanism, but this 
method offers the least opportunities for individual 
choice and initiative. It helps the teacher, but if carried 
too far does not help the pupil in character-building. 
He does well while the system is on, but when released 
from school, having little power of self-control, he is apt 
to be turbulent and law^less. 

There should be a good understanding between parents 
and teachers. The school and the home should not 
draw apart in the moral training of the young. Noth- 
ing but persistent and continuous practice in well-doing 
will produce that staying power which efficient char- 
acter requires. 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. The true aim of school government. 

2. The value of thought beforehand. 

3. Courage and respect go together. 

4. How may pupils and teachers come to understand each other ? 

5. Other school virtues. 

6. The factors in self-government. 

7. The strength and weakness of the ** School City." 

8. The limitations of self-government. 

9. Are some pupils unsuited to the school ? 

xo. Character-building through the exercise of freedom. 



CHAPTER Vm 
SCHOOL INCENTIVES 

Keeping in mind that the chief aim of the school is 
moral culture based upon self-control and social effi- 
ciency, we may hope to consider this topic with fairness. 
With the better light of the present time it is easy to 
see how many sins have been committed in the name of 
education. To win at any cost has been the motto of the 
old-time schoolmaster. The old pedagogy, like the old 
theology, did not deal in a large constructive way with 
human motive and ambition. It appealed to fear and 
selfishness rather than to love and honor. Some of the 
devices employed in earlier schools were not wanting in 
quaintness and humor. A certain New England school- 
master, who had obtained considerable reputation be- 
cause of his ability to control schools where others had 
failed, was engaged to complete a term at a country 
school where the master had been forced out. He ap- 
peared at the school late one Monday morning, shook 
hands all around with the pupils, apologized for being 
tardy, and explained that he had tarried at a neigh- 
boring village to make arrangements for some coffins 
which would shortly be sent to the school. 

This method of approach, which can be excused in 
this instance, was often pursued with such severity as 
to make school life anything but attractive. 



School Incentives 99 

But, strange to say, there are types of school discipline 
still prevalent both in Europe and America which re- 
veal the rudiments of a former and more barbaric age. 
Moreover, there has been shown remarkable vis inertice 
in any movement toward a more wholesome method of 
moral training. The teacher, instead of assuming lead- 
ership and summoning his pupils to brave and chivalric 
conduct, has been contented to work upon the low plane 
of cheap devices and sordid motives. He has been slow 
to see, slow to understand that self-realization does not 
mean selfish realization, that it means rather the con- 
sciousness of will to attempt and power to achieve. It 
means a continuous play of high and noble motives. 

Another obstacle, perhaps, to breadth and common- 
sense in school discipline has been the tendency to 
mystify the subject by injecting into it a scheme of moral 
philosophy with all its subtle and analytic reasoning. 
Better than any abstract ethical scheme is a thorough 
acquaintance mth the child and a skilful use of common- 
sense in helping him to conquer himself and stand for 
what is good and true. 

Again, the new education has set in motion new forces 
both in the school and in the home, so that the child is 
induced to do well through the incentive of interesting 
and inspiring worh^ rather than by moral precepts ac- 
companied possibly by inducements of a less worthy 
sort. It is less important that the child understand the 
philosophy of conduct and life, than that he forms the 
habit of well-doing from the love of it. Let us briefly 
examine, somewhat critically, some of the incentives that 
are available in the school life. 

LofC. 



100 School Management 

1. — Artificial and Ohjectionahle Incentives, 

1. Marks. This incentive is widely used, and cannot 
be wholly condemned. It affords a means of keeping 
some record of the pupil's efforts and attainments to 
which the teacher can refer, and by means of which he 
may make some report to the parents. But working for 
marks, simply to do as well or better than others, is a 
low motive, and when teachers allude often to the marks 
and hold them over their pupils with frequent reminders 
of the judgment-day to come, they carry a whole train 
of evils. > In the first place it should be understood that 
pupils differ greatly in ability as well as in physical 
strength. God has made them so, and to attempt to 
eradicate these differences is contrary to nature. The 
bright child should not have his conceit continually 
fostered by high marks, neither should the slow child be 
forever oppressed and humiliated by low ones. It is 
not unusual for children to think so continually, night 
and day, of the marks they receive and the effect they 
are to have on their future standing, that they become 
morbid, unhappy, and suffer partial loss of appetite and 
possibly of sleep. They are sometimes ashamed to tell 
at home what the trouble is, so parents, who are often 
too ambitious for their children, show their displeasure 
when the monthly card is received, and the child's 
marks are not satisfactory. This, of course, increases 
the difficulty, breeds unhappiness in the home, and, when 
parents finally conclude, as they usually do, that the low 
marks are the fault of the school rather than of the 
child, the situation becomes acute. 

In short, it is apparent that the marking system as an 



School Incentives 101 

incentive is not a healthy or proper stimulus. There is 
nothing quite like it in real life, and, if properly analyzed, 
it is seen to be quite out of place in a school which is 
conducted under the idea that education is life. 

In Smith College, while marks are used as a means 
of keeping a record of the work done, no student at any 
time during her course, or even at the close of it, knows 
anything about her standing unless it falls below the 
required grade. If such care is taken with students 
of college age, how much greater is the need of caution 
in the care of those in school ! 

It is earnestly recommended that marks be kept en- 
tirely under cover, and that other and higher forms of 
incentive be employed. 

2. Prizes. The custom of offering prizes in all kinds 
of schools is one of long standing, and it is likely to be 
some time before the practice of giving them is aban- 
doned. So many people who have but little money to 
give away and yet wish to have their names connected 
with some school or college, establish prizes without 
giving the slightest thought to the question whether they 
are going to work good or ill. If prizes are given to 
those who attain some definite result in a given time, or 
who reach a certain standard of excellence, or if, in 
other words, a prize is given for good work continued 
through a considerable period of time, it is less objec- 
tionable, as it may not necessarily affect health or foster 
the desire to surpass someone else. To be more precise : 
if a prize in a given school is offered to those whose 
work in English or history at the end of the year should 
be pronounced very creditable, the sole desire aroused 
is to reach that standard and not to surpass anyone 



102 School Management 

else. Even this plan of prize-giving should only be ap- 
proved in schools with exceeding care and modera- 
tion. When, however, prizes are offered for the best 
examination in a given subject, said examination to 
come near the end of the year, and to occupy two or 
three hours, the plan cannot be defended. What is 
needed is moral courage to oppose the establishment of 
such prizes. The writer confesses that he once failed 
to meet such an emergency squarely. 

The chief fault with prizes is that they stimulate only 
a very few, and those are the ones who are working hard 
enough. The large majority in the class make little if 
any effort to attain them, and those who need the 
incentive most are absolutely indifferent. The late 
Dr. White, one of the wisest and most conservative 
schoolmen that America has produced, says : " that the 
prize system has an appalling list o£ victims who have 
died early, or who are invalids for life. Superiority in 
scholastic attainments is dearly bought at the sacrifice 
of health and physical vigor." 

3. Special privileges and favors. Under this head 
would come early dismissals and holidays for good con- 
duct and good work. This means of inciting pupils to 
do well is not so reprehensible, and may be justified 
when the school has not reached that moral state where 
higher incentives are available, but the promise of 
special privileges to those who are perfect in attend- 
ance, or who reach a certain standing in their lessons, is 
attended with evil results and often with injustice. The 
writer remembers that once upon a very stormy day he 
saw two boys entering the school somewhat after nine 
o'clock. It turned out that their teacher was trying to 



School Incentives 108 

secure 100 per cent, in attendance, and had sent one of 
the boys out in the rain to get the other one, who was 
on the verge of sickness with a threatening cold, and 
really ought to have been in bed. This suggests the 
idea that 100 per cent, in attendance may cover a 
multitude of sins. It is entirely creditable for a child 
to remain at home when he is too ill to attend school, 
and it is creditable also to the parents who keep him 
there. If the promise of a holiday, or immunity from 
any task or of other privilege, induces a child to risk 
his health, a great wrong is committed. 

Again, such privileges extended on the ground of 
excellence in scholarship overlook the claims of the 
slower but none the less faithful students who, doing 
their best, yet cannot attain the required standard. 
What monstrous wrongs have been committed in this 
way ! The writer recalls an instance in the high school 
of a city where there was no public library. The school 
possessed one of its own ; but no pupil gaining a mark 
less than sixty-five per cent, was permitted to use 
the library. Those who, by reason of limited home 
advantages, were the most illiterate, and especially 
needed to make the acquaintance of good books, were 
prevented from doing so. In the same high school all 
were seated in their several rooms according to their 
standing, and there were other devices for emphasizing 
the difference between bright and slow pupils equally 
objectionable. But such instances are rare at the pres- 
ent time, and, as exceptions, are useful only as showing 
that progress is really being made. 

4. Commendation and reproof. Actual experience 
has shown that constant reminders of one's faults in the 



104 School Management 

form of rebuke are poor incentives toward well-doing. 
To refrain from reproof is often more helpful than to 
voice what the pupil knows well enough. Wise com- 
mendation is vastly better, if care is taken to say always 
what is strictly true and in such a way as not to occasion 
jealousy and sense of partiality. 

5. Punishments. We will not quarrel with those 
who have an elaborate creed concerning penalties, and 
appeal to Scripture or the moral code to substantiate 
their position. There is no doubt that in all nature 
there are penalties for wrong-doing, and children may 
well suffer and through their suffering learn to refrain 
from evil practices. But punishments as an incentive 
often produce a negative result and fail entirely in their 
object. Punishments should be natural, reasonable, and 
applicable to the offence. 

A positive and constructive policy in the school will 
find little need of corporal punishment. Theoretically 
there are extreme cases where it is needed for the good 
of the offender and as a deterrent to others. If all 
teachers could be trusted to resort to that measure only 
in the case of that incorrigible, defiant, and insulting 
boy whose salvation is at stake, it would be an error to 
forbid the use of corporal punishment. But many 
towns and cities have abolished it, and in so doing have 
chosen the least of two evils. Whenever this is done 
the teachers are relieved of responsibility in the use of 
extreme measures, and are obliged to exercise the high- 
est skill in preserving their authority. 

Thus it is seen that these forms of artificial incentive, 
while not to be condemned wholly, are tainted by such 
evil reputation and dangerous associations that they are 



School Incentives 105 

to be looked upon with suspicion and used only guard- 
edly and sparingly. 

There is a fundamental principle that may well be 
enunciated here : that in all moral, intellectual, and 
aesthetic progress there is a movement upward from 
lower to higher incentives. The moment the inferior 
means of advancement has served its purpose it is to be 
discarded and higher and better means are to be sub- 
stituted. Thus the personality is trained, disciplined, 
and brought nearer to perfection. The higher moral 
aim takes the place of the lower one. The book of 
higher order supplants the inferior one. Works of art 
become attractive and interesting according as the pupil 
has reached their altitude by easy steps. 

2. — Natural and Worthy Incentives. 

1. Eespect and regard for teachers. Here is a 
thoroughly normal and proper incentive. It harmo- 
nizes with what is current in daily life. Employers of 
labor, officers in the army, and leaders of political 
parties may offer strong incentives in themselves if they 
are manly. If they are known to be generous and true- 
hearted, those belonging to their shop, or their regiment, 
or their party will work and do battle for them. We 
have shown in Chapters I. and II. what a teacher should 
be by nature and cultivation. It is suggested also in 
the last chapter that the personality of the teacher is 
the most potent factor in school government. It is so 
because it offers one of the very strongest incentives 
that the school can give. To work for the teacher and 
for the sake of his approbation is not perhaps the high- 



106 School Management 

est motive, but it is certainly a natural one, and sad 
indeed is the state of a school where this incentive does 
not operate. 

2. The esteem of fellow-pupils. In life we desire 
to stand well with our associates and neighbors. We 
wish to have a good reputation in the community. We 
strive to perform all our duties as citizen, as parent, as 
a man of business, in such a manner that men believe 
in our honesty, respect our abilities, and count it a 
pleasure to number us among their friends. 

This kind of incentive is most desirable in the school. 
The teacher should foster it, and should do nothing or 
say nothing to make one portion of the school think ill 
of any member. If a pupil is conscious of having lost 
the respect and confidence of his mates, one strong in- 
centive in his case is gone, and the whole school is the 
sufferer thereby. The more loyal the members of a 
class are to each other the more they esteem the school. 

Dean Briggs, of Harvard University, speaking on 
Discipline, at a recent meeting, says : 

" In every school there should be an effort from the 
start to make a youth imbibe that wonderful tonic called 
school spirit, to make him feel that from the moment 
he enters a school he has become forever a part of it, 
one of its makers, and that throughout his life, wherever 
he goes, he takes with him, dragging or exalting it, as 
the case may be, the name of his school. Once again a 
deep loyalty, and the problem of discipline is gone." 

3. Interest in school work. Another legitimate and 
powerful incentive is love for the work we are doing 
and interest in it. The convict in the prison who is 
compelled to do uninteresting work day after day finds 



School Incentives 107 

no incentive in it. Sad it is tliat, under the present sys- 
tem of division of labor, multitudes of men and women 
find little interest in their work except that it furnishes 
them a livelihood and supports the home, which is, it 
must be admitted, an important incentive. But a 
strong incentive in life and in service is vocational inter- 
est, founded upon the intrinsic nature of the work done, 
the attractiveness of it, the variety of its processes, and 
the beauty and worth of the product. The world will 
never be satisfied until such interest attaches to all labor. 

In the modern school-house there is every opportu- 
nity to make work interesting, and thus to evoke a high 
order of effort. The greatest change from the old edu- 
cation to the new has consisted in transferring the em- 
phasis from the questions of order and discipline to 
those of fruitful and inspiring work. Give children 
enough to do of what they like to do, and idleness and 
wrong-doing are banished. 

Handwork and art are incentives in themselves. 
Says Dr. John Dewey : " There are certain reasons for 
believing that the type of interest along with these oc- 
cupations is of a thoroughly healthy, permanent, and 
really educative sort ; and that by giving a larger place 
to occupations, we find an excellent, perhaps the very 
best way of making an appeal to the child's spontane- 
ous interest, and yet have, at the same time, some guar- 
antee that we are not dealing with what is merely pleas- 
ure-giving, exciting, and transient." 

The skill of the teacher in making work various, not 
too difficult, and well organized helps to utilize this 
incentive of interest, and make it more steady and con- 
tinuous. 



108 School Management 

4. Partnership and profit-sharing. The few busi- 
ness establishments in this country that have adopted 
the principle of profit-sharing, and distribute to all, 
even the humblest employees, a certain portion of 
what is gained, have prospered immensely. They have 
been free from strikes and have been able to count upon 
their employees for the most cheerful and unreserving 
service. The school affords considerable opportunity 
for employing this incentive. We have already alluded 
in the previous chapter to School City plans of govern- 
ment. This form of incentive appears to work well 
there. There are many ways in which the pupils may 
share in the management of the school beyond the mere 
questions of good government. The room is to be kept 
in order. The walls are to be decorated. Visitors are 
to be courteously received and entertained. Pupils are 
to bring to the school their choicest books, pictures, 
and toys for the pleasure of others. An excursion is to 
be planned. A debating society to be organized An 
athletic club is to be supported. Every single pupil in 
the room should be on some committee or should be a 
member of some organization. He should feel a degree 
of responsibility for what is done, and should share in 
the satisfaction and credit which follow good work of 
any sort. 

5. Consciousness of doing right. This is a sort of 
blanket provision and is submitted as a concession to 
those who are accustomed to formulate the subject of 
incentives under the head of various abstract moral 
qualities. The pleasure of doing right is undoubtedly a 
real pleasure. It is associated more or less with all 
those incentives which we have classified as natural and 



School Incejitives 109 

legitimate. It is doubted if the conduct or endeavors of 
pupils, especially the very young, are controlled by the 
question of right and wrong, but the satisfaction which 
everyone receives from right doing, while it may be 
more or less unconscious, is still a growing incentive, 
and in maturer life may become the dominating one. 

The classification of incentives which we have given 
is believed to be candid and just. The reasons for re- 
jecting those which are artificial and for intensifying 
and strengthening those that are natural have been 
frankly stated. It is most encouraging to believe that 
American schools are progressing rapidly in the direc- 
tion of higher incentives, for in this way the school 
may more easily become the ally of the home and the 
church, and may do its perfect work in training the 
young to seek with all their heart the good, the beauti- 
ful, and the true. 

In closing this topic it is interesting to note that the 
most advanced theories of pedagogy are not at variance 
with the dictates of humanity and common-sense. We 
are able to reduce the problem of school government to 
much simpler terms than formerly, because we can view 
it through the lens of real life, and a life that is strongly 
tinctured by philanthropy. There is a vast difference, 
however, between a school for children and that most 
humane and admirably managed reformatory for youths 
at Elmira. A recent writer, describing that institution, 
places at the head of a list of incentives which operate 
there as remedies for crime, ''the desire to get out." 
There have been schools, and doubtless there are some 
to-day, where the desire to get out has been a dominant 
and ever-present one ; but in numberless schools there 



110 School Management 

are now to be seen pupils so happy, so loyal, so enthu- 
siastic in their work, that the thought of getting out 
seldom enters their minds. School management has at- 
tained a high standard of perfection when every child 
has been reached, when the school in its sentiments and 
purpose is a unit, and all desire to stay in. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. The relation of leadership to moral training. 

2. Add to the list of objectionable incentives given. 

3. The relation of moral progress to incentives. 

4. What incentives are most helpful in character training ? 

5. Why is interest a good incentive ? 

6. The satisfaction of well-doing. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE CURRICULUM 

1. — Making the Curriculum, 

Next in importance to the personality of the teacher 
and a knowledge of the child is the selection and ar- 
rangement of materials for instruction. The quality of 
daily life in the school is clearly dependent upon the 
course of study from which the teacher must get his 
guiding points. If this has been prepared with intelli- 
gence and offers broad, fruitful, and interesting work, 
the teacher has the opportunity of making a good 
school. If, on the other hand, the prescribed course is 
narrow, poorly arranged, and lacking in suggestiveness 
and richness, even the best teacher will be seriously 
handicapped. The only palliative is the privilege, 
stated or implied, that the teacher may use the curricu- 
lum any way he pleases. 

Dr. W. T. Harris has formulated the axiom that the 
course of study should present at all points a cross-sec- 
tion of human knowledge and experience. This should 
not be taken too literally, for it does not mean that at 
every stage all parts of knoAvledge should have equal 
place, or that they should be treated with equal fulness. 
It does, however, point to the idea that all sides of the 
child's nature are to be considered at every stage in his 

111 



112 School Management 

education ; that no power is to become atrophied from 
disuse, and that his interests are to be very influential 
as a guide to his teachers. For illustration : Art has 
made a place for itself at every point in the curriculum, 
but it is the art suited to that particular age, deter- 
mined by what the child can express by means of pencil 
or brush, and what he can appreciate and enjoy in the 
way of art objects. There must be very careful adapta- 
tion based upon the experience of many people who 
have made observations in this field. This is a practi- 
cal kind of child-study, and it is through the compari- 
son of data collected by different persons that we get 
the perfect adaptation desired. 

Think of the attempts to prepare courses of study in 
music ! If there is an educational quagmire anywhere 
it may be found here. The cause is that directors of 
music, with very limited experience with young children, 
make a scheme which seems to them logical and is so 
in a technical sense. It is not psychological, however, 
because it fails to interest the child in music; it 
often causes him to hate it. The best authorities in 
this matter are those elementary teachers who have made 
discoveries in methods of musical instruction and whose 
children are delighted not only to sing, but to know 
something about the steps in musical notation. The 
special teacher or director is in this, as in any other 
subject, the one to gather these bits of experience and 
give them unified, progressive, and consistent form. 

Perhaps the best illustration of the progress which 
has been made in adapting materials of thought and 
study to the capacity and interest of children is seen in 
reading-books. We may go back less than a century 



The Curriculum 113 

and find that the reading-book for higher classes con- 
tained largely abstract and ethical instruction, with here 
and there a piece containing information. There was 
little which we would call literature to-day. For young 
children the attempt was made to dilute and simplify 
these same ethical ideas, and the matter thus produced, 
it seems to us, was quite inane, not to say ludicrous. 
Children's Kterature to-day is indeed like a garden full 
of beauty and attractiveness. 

In the same way, if we were to examine the material 
needed to reach every growing taste and aptitude, we 
should find that much has been accomplished in the at- 
tempt to have breadth without prolixity and confusion. 
The occasional grumbling to be heard to the effect that 
too many things are taught is not usually well-founded. 
The fault is in the selection, arrangement, and method 
of interpretation of the curriculum. Too often it is the 
lack of tact and good judgment on the part of the teacher. 
Here, then, we have a very practical part of school man- 
agement. The making of the curriculum cannot be as- 
sumed by an outside person entirely, be it a county 
board or a city superintendent. Every teacher is inter- 
ested in it, for he has much at stake. The curriculum 
must manifestly be a joint product. It should be a 
progressive, growing thing, and even at its best should 
always be the servant of the teacher and never his mas- 
ter. Let us now attempt to formulate some of the 
most important considerations to be kept in mind 
while making a curriculum. 

1. The social aim should dominate. It should not be 
a catalogue of facts or even of investigations, but should 
be a plan for social experience, involving action, experi- 



114 School Management 

ment, doing, constructing, inventing, comparing, ob- 
servation, and research. It should be human in its 
trend, and should lead pupils to see and understand 
men and things as they are, and to know something of 
the means and processes that have made them so. As 
Dr. Butler has pointed out,"^ self-activity and evolution 
are great words in education and in life. They should 
guide us in framing a curriculum. The development of 
the child and the satisfaction of his needs are funda- 
mental ideas. Healthful industry and social co-opera- 
tion are watchwords of the new education. If the full 
force of the industrial idea is brought to bear in making 
the curriculum the schools will come to have a new 
tone. There will be no break from the kindergarten to 
the primary school. It will not be necessary to set off 
one or two periods a week for handwork. There will 
be more or less handwork, but some handwork will be 
pretty nearly continuous. 

2. The course of study should have some local signifi- 
cance. Different sections of the country have varying 
climate, productions, and industries. Cities and towns 
often have a distinctive field for their manufactures. 
The studies of the school should open the minds of the 
pupils to what is going on around them. If the place 
is a railroad centre they should know something about 
the traffic which is provided for. If it is a port of entry 
some place should be given to the consideration of im- 
ports, the conditions causing such importations, and 
the uses which they serve. 

Each section has its own historic coloring, and it is 
right that the children should be imbued with the tra- 
*" Tlie Meaning of Educatioij." 



The Curriculum 115 

ditions and spirit of tlieir own town, county, or State. 
The history of the Civil AVar, designed for all sec- 
tions, should be entirely fair in presenting the particu- 
lar kind of patriotism which operated respectively in 
the North and South. The fauna and flora of every 
locality should appear in the school curriculum. It 
has also come to be felt that courses for rural schools 
should present a field of study appropriate to agricult- 
ural pursuits. The arithmetic should not deal wholly 
with buying and selling, but with the many quantitative 
problems of the soil, of stock-raising, of supply and de- 
mand, of yield and profit. The nature study should 
enter into the chemistry of soils and the particular in- 
gredients required for different crops, fertilizers and the 
relative value of farm products, stock-feeding, etc. All 
these things may have high educational value, and at 
the same time make school- work more useful and helpful 
in fostering the productive life of the community. 

3. The law of association must be respected. There 
must be as much natural correlation as possible. This 
is economical ; it is also consistent with the doctrine of 
interest. There should be threads of correlation mak- 
ing the work of each week, each month, and each term 
more or less a unit. Geography, however scientific it 
may be, is still a background for history. "We do not 
know any portion of the earth thoroughly until we see 
what human life it has produced and how people and 
environment have reacted upon each other. Heading, 
drawing, and language come to the aid of every other 
subject. The child needs them and so we supply the 
need. Both in grammar and secondary schools this 
principle is too much neglected. Departmental teach- 



116 School Management 

ing does not favor correlation unless special provision is 
made whereby teachers of subjects confer together and 
agree to correlate. 

4. The course should have continuity. Care should 
be taken that the child's interests should be consulted, 
rather than the teacher's. Some of the courses con- 
structed upon the evolutionary culture epoch basis have 
not been tested long enough to substantiate their claim 
to primacy. Nothing could be more interesting to the 
adult mind than to trace the progress of mankind 
through its several stages of culture. There is proba- 
bly no objection to arranging a course of study for 
primary schools upon this plan, provided those ideal 
forms of life and activity are followed which are possi- 
ble with children. A strictly logical course is apt to 
fail in meeting the needs of the young, so that this 
kind of continuity cannot be arbitrarily enforced. 
Each subject has its natural unfolding, and there is an 
order of subjects which experience has found to be fea- 
sible. For the sake of correlation, however, it is often 
wise to break an historical or even a geographical se- 
quence. It would be folly to teach literature in the 
common schools according to a chronological scheme. 
Usually the reading may be selected with reference to 
illuminating and enriching the other subjects, although 
there are many exceptions to this rule. There are mas- 
terpieces of literature so full of inspiration and bfeauty 
that a teacher will wish to use them independently and 
freely for the sake not only of what they teach, but 
for the tone they give to the school. 

5. The course of study should be prepared by the 
superintendent assisted by his principals. The princi- 



The Curriculum 117 

pals in turn should gather from their teachers as many 
suggestions as possible, dictated by their experience, 
and should make the best possible use of them. The 
reasons for this plan have already been suggested. 
If all have a part, and realize that they have a part, in 
framing the curriculum, there will be a sense of pro- 
prietorship and approval which is needed to make it a 
success. 

Presumably there will be new experience and new 
suggestions so that a revision is needed at least once in 
two years. In this way interest is kept alive, mistakes 
are corrected, the work of new teachers is recognized, 
and so there is no stagnation. 

6. It should be flexible. While the course as a skele- 
ton should be quite binding, it should be framed so that 
in minor details considerable freedom is left to the 
teacher. In Chapter IV., on grading and promotion, we 
have advocated supplementary topics so that abler 
pupils may always be employed in a more intensive 
study of the subject. In planning a curriculum some 
attention should be given to this feature, although for 
the most part the teacher himself must organize and 
carry out this idea. 

Although a course of study for a town or city may be 
used in all schools, it should be understood that both 
in a quantitative and a qualitative sense some schools 
can do more than others. In this sense, therefore, the 
course must be flexible, and principals and teachers are 
to administer it in accordance with their environment 
and the degree of home culture which the childi-en 
bring with them. 

7. There may be rotation. To avoid overcrowding, 



118 School Management 

it is justifiable to omit a given subject for a year or half- 
year. This practice in some quarters has been called 
"rotation of crops." Is there any good reason why 
arithmetic should command so much time every year of 
the child's life ? Might not geography alternate with 
nature study for a half-year, and could not even music 
and drawing, in their technical phases at least, have 
their turn ? This suggests that educators need to be 
open-minded and ready to reconsider any questions 
affecting the life, health, and nurture of children, even 
though they have to discard old practices. 

2. — Using the Curriculum, 

The value of anything consists in the way it is used. 
Any machine, if not properly understood, is often of 
very little service. This is especially true of such ed- 
ucational means as a curriculum, which, in itseK, is a 
dead thing, and must be clothed before it has meaning 
and value. The teacher must put energy and life into 
it, in order to make it yield its proper fruit. Edu- 
cation is a vital process, and is largely accomplished by 
one living soul acting upon another. The Committee 
of twelve on rural schools introduces a sample course of 
study as follows : " The course of study is the measur- 
ing-rod or scale to determine at what point in the ele- 
mentary course a pupil's work has arrived. It should 
not be used as the procrustean bed on which to stretch 
the work of the school in order to give uniformity." 
This may be taken as the attitude of educators gener- 
ally in regard to the function of the course of study as 
restricting the teacher. Courage and enterprise on the 



The Curriculum 119 

part of principals and teachers are needed in order that 
every curriculum may be interpreted in the spirit of the 
words above quoted. There are various ways in which 
a course of study may be used successfully. 

1. There should be a comprehension of the whole 
scheme. Every teacher belonging to a school system 
should read with care the whole curriculum, giving at- 
tention to the order of topics in the several subjects and 
the various opportunities for correlation which are 
manifest. 

In the more essential subjects of geography, history, 
and science it would seem wise for every teacher, even 
the kindergartner, to have a good working knowledge of 
each subject from beginning to end. This would mean 
some work for several years, possibly, but it could be 
pursued in such an interesting manner as to afford much 
satisfaction. This is one way in which the teacher 
would be able to approach the ideal suggested in 
Chapter III. 

2. The teacher should explore thoroughly the particu- 
lar field in which he is working. By no other means can 
he know what the curriculum offers, and the best way to 
select material for daily use. For example : If the 
teacher is to deal with Indian life he would want to 
read the best authorities, and visit museums where he 
can study at first hand Indian clothing, implements, and 
methods of domestic life. With the aid of pupils quite 
a collection of materials can be made, and so a respec- 
table Indian museum can be formed. Supposing the 
teacher has to cover some portion of American history, 
there is opened a wide field for study and reading. Not 
only history, but oratory, poetry, and historical fiction 



120 School Management 

are to be included. In short, every teacher should be- 
come, to a good extent, a specialist in that portion of 
the curriculum assigned to him, in whatever grade it 
may be. 

3. Not only in making but in using the curriculum 
there should be selection and elimination. The teacher, 
having a better knowledge of his own domain than those 
who framed the course of study, is permitted both to 
add and to subtract. He will use this privilege in such 
a way as to meet the requirements of his own class with- 
out going too far from the general plan. Some courses 
offer twice as much as a teacher can expect to teach 
well. He must assume the right to use some discretion 
here. 

4. A good means of economy in teaching is the use 
of types. Those should be selected which are repre- 
sentative of a large class of facts and which are rich in 
illustration of the characteristics of that class. In 
teaching cities, Lowell, Rochester, Minneapolis, Kansas 
City, Atlanta, Memphis, and Los Angeles would serve 
as types of a considerable number of cities having the 
same or similar natural advantages, as well as like com- 
mercial and industrial interests. Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Washington, and Chicago are sui generis, 
and may be taught with special attention to those feat- 
ures for which they have an exclusive claim. The same 
principle applies in nature study, in biography, and the 
study of institutions. It may also be applied in litera- 
ture, architecture, sculpture, and painting. It may be 
made a means of organizing in the mind clearly defined 
standards, as well as a working nomenclature. This is 
closely related to correlation, for through intensive 



The Curriculum 121 

study of men and things we can trace more thoroughly 
the relations which the child bears to the industrial life 
of the village or city in which he lives, or to the farm 
where he gets, possibly, the better part of his educa- 
tion. The writer has never been able to discover the 
slightest contradiction between that correlation which 
binds one piece of knowledge to another and those 
manifold relationships which connect the child with his 
environment and through an acquaintance of which he 
gains self-realization. Dr. Charles McMurry * declares 
that : 

" Correlation at once discards the idea of encyclo- 
paedic knowledge as an aim of school education. It 
puts a higher estimate upon related ideas and a lower 
one upon that of complete or encyclopaedic information. 
All the cardinal branches of education, indeed, shall be 
taught in the school ; but only the essential, the typi- 
cal, will be selected, and an exhaustive knowledge of 
any subject is out of the question. Correlation will put 
a constant check upon over-accumulation of facts, and 
will rather seek to strengthen an idea by association 
with familiar things than to add a new fact to it." 

5. The best teachers keep a plan and progress book. 
This is a significant means of using the course of study 
skilfully. After gaining a full knowledge of the field it 
is well to place in a blank-book a plan of teaching for 
a week or a month. This may be amplified and worked 
out in detail for each day's teaching. Mr. Burtis C. Ma- 
gee t writes upon the subject of plan-books as follows : 

"It is seen more clearly that they offer, when well 

* " Elements of General Method," 

f "Plan and Progress Books," in School Work for June, 1902. 



122 School Management 

done, a method of preparation of the lessons, a means 
of giving content to the grades, and of dovetailing the 
subjects to one another, that would scarcely be accom- 
plished as well by other means. The great danger to 
be avoided in arranging a system of plan -books is to 
prevent an unreasonable amount of clerical labor, and 
of research, from falling upon class teachers. After a 
set of plans and prospectuses have once been arranged, 
however, the labor of their preparation is reduced to a 
minimum. 

" Experience shows that young teachers meet with their 
chief difficulty in instruction and consequent difficulty 
in discipline from lack of systematic and progressive 
outline and plan work. To such a teacher a daily plan 
book prepared with some detail is a great help. Such 
a book may be examined by the principal daily, or at 
frequent intervals, and suggestions and directions may 
be made therein by the principal. It affords an oppor- 
tunity for the teacher and the principal to meet on the 
common ground of a concrete difficulty whenever one 
occurs. Much time and energy is likely to be saved by 
this means, which otherwise might be devoted to matters 
upon which the teacher needed no assistance." 

What has been said about the course of study belongs 
to that middle ground which separates the teacher from 
the actual work of teaching. If there were no course 
of study, and in many cases it would be quite as well if 
there were none, the teacher's relation to the child would 
be short-circuited, and the instruction would be at first 
hand, but when teachers are acting under commission 
by a central authority it becomes very necessary to keep 
in mind the suggestions we have made. There are many 



The Curriculum 123 

other things which will occur to a person of experience 
as bearing upon this matter. It has not been the pur- 
pose here to exhaust the subject, but simply to indicate 
the general importance of the freedom of the teacher 
and the use by him of sound discretion and fine adapta- 
tion. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

X. The essential purpose of the curriculum. 

2. What progress has been made in adapting material to young 
children ? 

3. In what sense are the activities of the school social? 

4. Should agriculture be studied, and why? 

5. The limits of correlation and continuity. 

6. How should the curriculum be made? 

7. The advantages of rotation in subjects. 

8. Selection and elimination. 

9. How can types be used? 

xo. Value of plan and progress books. 



CHAPTER X 
THE DAILY PROGRAMME 

In deciding what constitutes a good school programme 
we must correlate much that has been suggested in 
former chapters. To be consistent and not violate our 
purpose to make the school a good type of social life, 
wherein the individual personality is ihe object of 
culture, we must permit nothing to come into the daily 
programme which does not favor health and cheerful 
activity. There must be no undue strain or fatigue. 
Pupils must be asked to do only what they can do 
without fretting or worry. In short, the day, from 
beginning to end, must present a picture of well-ordered 
living and accomplishment. How clearly the teacher's 
good sense and skill are reflected in the daily trans- 
actions of the school ! What need of foresight, of calm 
deliberation, sustained by enthusiastic and energetic 
direction of work ! The writer can think of school- 
rooms where there is always quiet, steady work, where 
the teacher speaks in pleasant, natural tones, and the 
pupils respond in the same manner. There is also in 
mind more than one instance where there was lack of 
plan or preparation, where the school-room seemed to 
be in a state of upheaval and chaos, and where, in some 
cases, there was no hope of betterment. 

The making of the daily programme requires the best 

124 



The Daily Programme 125 

possible suggestions from superintendents and prin- 
cipals worked out in detail by the teachers and adapted 
to the needs of their own classes. A strictly uniform 
programme for a system of town schools, or even for a 
large graded school, savors too much of the despatching 
of trains, or the manoeuvres of a military post. 



1. — The Programme a Gross-section of the School. 

As the curriculum is in some senses a cross-section of 
human knowledge, so the daily programme is a cross- 
section of school life. If we visit a school for an entire 
day we see a representative exhibit of the school in its 
environment, the teacher, the pupils, the things they do, 
and the life they lead. We get a pretty distinct im- 
pression of the spirit that animates the members of the 
school and find that our estimate of its merits is in- 
fluenced very much by the interest and heartiness, as 
well as the harmony, shown in the various school rela- 
tions. We see with what degree of pleasure pupils enter 
school in the morning, and in what condition they pass 
to their homes at night. These two items are of im- 
mense importance. We observe whether there is a good 
distribution of their time for study, for recitation, for 
recreation, and play. We take note of the ventilation 
and cleanliness of the room, as well as the good taste 
shown in the arrangement of furniture, the display of 
work, decoration, etc. Any lack of definiteness and un- 
derstanding between teacher and pupil about the kind 
and amount of work to be done, or any hitching or con- 
fusion in the progress of the programme is offensive to 
the critical observer. 



126 School Management 

2.—TJie Opening of School, 

One can often form a good opinion of the merit of a 
school by what takes place during the first ten or fifteen 
minutes in the morning. It is unfortunate that visitors 
are sometimes present in the school-room while the 
pupils are coming in and that the teacher arrives only a 
few moments before nine o'clock. I say it is unfortunate. 
It might not be so in every case, but it would sometimes 
reveal a condition in the school which would not be to 
the credit of the teacher. If the pupils came in noisily 
and were rough and discourteous in their conduct it 
would be a bad beginning of the day, and would preju- 
dice the mind of the visitor unfavorably. 

It is not well to prevent all social intercourse of 
pupils while in the school-room. Courteous greeting 
and conversation when they enter the room is a good 
element, but for a few moments before nine o'clock 
there should be quiet and an opportunity to get things 
in readiness for the day's work. It does not seem just 
to make pupils tardy who are in their seats by nine 
o'clock, no matter what signals are given before that 
time for quiet study. In a former chapter reference has 
been made to the value of the opening exercises when 
properly conducted. As a part of the daily programme 
these exercises have a distinct and special value. When 
it is permitted to have a devotional exercise there should 
be reading by teacher of a portion of Scripture, without 
comment, followed by the Lord's Prayer and the singing 
of an appropriate sacred song. It seems very unfortunate 
that there should ever be an objection to an exercise so 
universal in its charsicter. 



The Daily Programme 127 

In communities where objections are made to such 
an exercise, it is still feasible to have selections of choice 
literature of ethical import read by the teacher, or bet- 
ter still, recited by the pupils, with appropriate singing. 
There are many ways of varying the opening exercise 
in order to make it more interesting and instructive, 
but, as a rule, ten minutes are long enough to serve the 
purpose intended. No one will deny that a school is a 
better school where the opening is attended by good or- 
der and lessons of inspiration and helpfulness. 

3. — The Length of Sessions, 

It is difficult in educational work to specify the abso- 
lutely best thing because of the many varying conditions 
under which work is done. At the present time most 
public schools have a session extending from 9 a.m. 
to 11.30 A.M. for young children, and not later than 
12 noon for older classes. There is also an after- 
noon session of at least one hour and a half. The 
majority ^f high schools have one session, varying in 
length from four to five hours, with an intermission of 
about one-half hour for lunch. Most private schools, 
both elementary and secondary, and a few public schools, 
have one session of from four to five hours, with not less 
than one -half hour for lunch. The writer believes that 
in those communities where a very large proportion of 
the people are well-to-do and wish to provide for their 
children outside instruction in music, dancing, physical 
training, or to give them out-of-door exercise during the 
entire year in riding, rowing, games, or athletics, the 
schools can be administered with one session in a way 



128 School Management 

to serve nearly all interests. In Brookline, Mass., the 
session for grammar and high schools is from 8.30 to 
1.30, with an intermission of a half-hour for lunch, and 
with gymnasium and games at some other time during 
the session. The success of this plan depends upon 
the care given to the lunch period, and the extent to 
which pupils who cannot go home are provided either 
at school or from home with a palatable lunch. It 
permits teachers who live at a distance to come and 
perform their day's work, do what is necessary in the 
school-room for the next day's work, and then go home 
at an hour somewhat earlier than is possible under 
the two-session plan. 

But there are marked advantages in having morning 
and afternoon sessions in public schools. This plan 
permits children to have their mid-day meal with their 
parents at the hour most convenient in the houses of 
working-people. It distributes the work over the larger 
portion of the day, and in this respect, as well as in the 
regularity of meals, is thought to be more hygienic. 
The influence of the school is more extended over that 
class of children who, when not in school, are on the 
street. It also makes it possible to have more study in 
the school and less at home, which is always desirable. 

The Horace Mann School of the Teachers College of 
New York, a private day-school numbering a thousand 
boys and girls, has in its elementary department a ses- 
sion extending from nine to one. There are fifteen min- 
utes for lunch about midway of the sessions. In the 
high school the hours are from nine until two, with an 
intermission of forty minutes for lunch. In this school 
there is only a limited opportunity for study periods, 



The Daily Programme 129 

and above the second grade some little work is required 
at home, increasing in amount through the successive 
grades. Inasmuch as many of the pupils come from 
a long distance, and the parents wish to have them with 
them during a portion of the afternoon, these hours seem 
to be the best that could be devised. There is hand- 
work in every grade, and practically every day. There 
are also physical exercises daily. These, with careful ar- 
rangement of the programme in reference to relief through 
change, and by skilled teaching and management, make 
the scheme effective, if not ideal. This instance is 
cited to show that, after all, it is not so much the length 
of the school-hours as it is a judicious use of the time 
and the efficiency of the instruction that determines 
the merit of the programme. 

4. — The Number of Classes. 

In graded schools it is not difficult to provide for all 
necessary classes, unless there has been adopted and 
put in operation in its extreme form some system of in- 
dividual teaching or fine grading which, however good it 
may be in theory, does considerable harm to the school 
as a whole. 

In ungraded schools the problem is more serious. It 
has, however, been found possible to grade the rural 
elementary school upon a three-class basis in such a way 
as to give ample time, not only for the conduct of recita- 
tions, but for the seat-work and study periods as well. 
For example, if the school is divided into three divis- 
ions in English, numbered A, B, C, and a half-hour 
is assigned to that subject, the teacher would devote 



130 School Management 

eight minutes to the A division, and then assign them 
written work at their desks. He would give a some- 
what longer period to the B division, and then assign 
them some seat- work. There would be a still longer 
period for the C, or lowest division, which would need 
the most instruction. The same plan would be pursued 
in reading ; the A and B divisions having a period for 
oral reading and a somewhat longer one for silent read- 
ing. A similar method could be followed in the other 
subjects, although the writer believes that in handwork 
the whole school could be engaged at the same time, 
and, in most cases, could do the same kind of work, as in 
basketry, modelling, or painting. The programme for 
the rural school conducted upon this scheme, with proper 
attention to recreative games and gymnastics, may be 
made as highly professional as in a graded schooL 

6. — Study, Becitatioriy and Becreation, 

Here we have three elements of almost equal im- 
portance. The doctrine of self-activity requires us to 
train pupils to study, and in no place can this be done 
as well as in the school-room, by the teacher. The 
recitation, also, is essential, but may be longer or shorter 
according to circumstances. Recitations are often too 
long. Both teachers and pupils lose the power of close 
attention ; interest wanes, and the result is often painful 
to witness. There must also be recreative exercises as 
well as relief through change of work. Attention to this 
matter is imperative in primary classes, and should not 
be neglected anywhere. 

Those lessons which involve the greatest effort should 



The Daily Programme 131 

come earliest in tlie day. There is decided difference of 
opinion as to wliicli subjects are the hardest, and, as a 
matter of fact, it is likely that with some teachers one 
subject is most difficult and with others a different sub- 
ject causes the most fatigue. The consensus of opinion 
seems to be that mathematics and gymnastics, if vigor- 
ously taken, are the most tiring. Some experiments 
have shown that drawing and music are especially weary- 
ing. As said before, doubtless the method of teaching 
has much to do with these particular effects. It is sug- 
gested that the teacher, by studying closely the indi- 
viduals of his school, can determine which are best for 
the early part of the day and which for the latter. The 
remaining exercises would naturally fall between. 

All pupils should have some time for quiet study 
daily. Between periods of intense study and recitations 
there should be a brief time for moving about the rooms, 
looking at new books and pictures, songs and games, 
or whatever the teacher may think to be the most help- 
ful at the time. He will learn much from his pupils as 
to the best forms of recreative relief. These breaks in 
the tedium of the school programme are not merely for 
the sake of hygiene, but for the aid they give to good 
order, pleasure in work, and social culture. 

6. — Work and Fatigue. 

It is self-evident that good, faithful work, here as else- 
where, must produce fatigue. There is nothing in the 
idea of fatigue alarming or to be avoided It is doubt- 
ful if anything good in the world could be accomplished 
without it. Children who are not permitted to work up 



132 School Management 

to tlie point of fatigue are in danger of becoming weak 
and effeminate. When liard work begins there is a 
beginning of fatigue, which increases up to a certain 
point, then often ceases. The point at which it ceases 
is known as the intellectual second breath. This is 
really the danger-point. Nature here seems to cease 
her warning through a sense of fatigue, and the worker 
may go on insensible to weariness until quite exhausted. 
It is thought that working under the second breath 
is in many cases beneficial, if not too long continued. 
If often indulged it causes the worker, especially if 
young, permanent and irreparable injury. Here we 
see the bearing of what has just been said about the 
necessity of periods of recreation in connection with 
periods of fatigue and weariness. The former is the 
legitimate attendant upon hard work. Weariness may 
be caused by lack of interest and monotony. 

" Fatigue results from the loss of energy at our dis- 
posal; its amount is measured by the reduction in our 
power to work. The feeling of weariness, on the other 
hand, may result from the monotony of routine without 
at all being accompanied by any material loss of energy. 
A child at play may become fatigued, but never weary of 
his activity ; a boy engaged at work in which he takes 
no interest may become so weary in fifteen minutes that 
he can accomplish nothing." ^ These words suggest an 
interesting inquiry, good at any time and full of interest 
to the growing teacher. When children begin to be 
restless, inattentive, and disinterested the teacher may 
well look into the source of the trouble. Has the air 
become foul ? Is the room too warm ? Has the last 

* Herman T. Lukens, Educational Review^ March, 1898, page 247. 



The Daily Programme 133 

exercise been continued too long, or has it been too 
monotonous ? Have the pupils been sitting for a long 
time without relief ? Has the teacher been out of sorts 
and irritable ? — a condition which is reflected in the 
pupils. Some such catechism as this should run 
through the mind of the teacher, and he should at once 
undertake to apply some one of the many remedies 
which may suggest themselves. It may be a brief run 
out-of-doors, or a short intermission in the room, or a 
song, game, or story. Sometimes a change to some 
more interesting work is sufficient to check weariness and 
restore a cheerful atmosphere. 

It is also apparent that in the performance of inter- 
esting work there is more or less fatigue of which the 
pupils may or may not be conscious. If there are pupils 
in the room who for any reason are not strong the teacher 
should see that they do not continue their work too long. 
In fact, it may be necessary at times to take away work 
from pupils who are known to be ambitious beyond 
their strength. Such care on the part of the teacher 
will be greatly appreciated by the parents. 

7. — Gymnastics and Games. 

What kind of gymnastics are best ? This question is 
raised in order to suggest a caution. There are two or 
three parties on the subject of physical education, and, 
to the practical educator, it often appears that the ex- 
ponents of any particular school are too opinionated 
and dogmatic. There are splendid features about every 
system, and the claims made for them are based upon 
sound principles of psychology and health. The writer, 



134 School Management 

for instance, is a strong believer in the validity of Swe- 
dish gymnastics as a basis of physical training in the 
schools, but he has seen this system applied with such 
strenuousness as to make pupils and teachers dislike it 
and lose all sense of interest and pleasure. He has seen 
other teachers who have made their classes enthusiastic. 
He believes that an eclectic scheme of exercises, com- 
bining the best features of the Swedish, the German, and 
the Delsarte methods, is more suitable for American chil- 
dren. Teachers are cautioned, therefore, against accept- 
ing the stern mandate that gymnastics should never be 
accompanied by music. Rhythm and grace of move- 
ment are most desirable elements, and even dancing is 
likely to become more and more a school exercise. 
Here, then, is the need of a broad, intelligent view, and 
an unwillingness to surrender that view to any parti- 
san who, however skilful in his specialty, may do vio- 
lence to the general theory of what the modern school 
should be. 

It should not be necessary to urge the importance of 
some physical exercises each day. The plea so often 
heard that there is no time is not valid, for the follow- 
ing reasons : 

1. It is very often possible to make a better and more 
economic use of the curriculum by a skilful selection, 
grouping, and correlating of subjects. 

2. There may be a more careful preparation of the 
lessons so that a teacher wastes no time or energy either 
for himself or for the pupils. 

3. Considerable economy can be effected by arranging 
the daily programme as has been suggested. The exer- 
cises that follow each other should be in sharp contrast, 



The Daily Programme 135 

so that the mind of the learner works under a different 
tension, or in a different way. 

4. Physical education properly applied in its correc- 
tive, developing, and recreative forms results in a saving 
of time and energy. 

The best form of physical culture for children in the 
primary and intermediate classes is undoubtedly such 
free play and games as can be supervised by the teacher 
either in the school-room or out-of-doors. The latter is 
always preferred. This implies that every teacher 
should not only know games, but should love to play 
them with her children. The writer has seen a school 
revived and transformed when the teacher began to lead 
and direct the games of the class out-of-doors. It is 
safe to say that this is not a common occurrence. It is 
earnestly commended as a subject for consideration in 
teachers' meetings and conventions. It suggests a new 
use of the playground, and new opportunities for co- 
operation and social combination. Another fine oppor- 
tunity presents itself to primary teachers in the dramatic 
aptitudes of children, and the possibility of using this 
propensity in connection with stories of chivahy, such 
poems as " Hiawatha," and tales of Indians and pioneers. 
The preparation of costumes and implements in connec- 
tion with these dramatic representations is a good feat- 
ure of historical training for the young. 

Mr. George E. Johnson, while superintendent of 
schools in Andover, Mass., experimented considerably 
to ascertain what games are best for out-of-doors and in 
the school-room. He has suggested the following, and 
no doubt the list could be considerably increased.^ 

* American Physical Fducation Review, June, 1901, page 163. 



136 School Management 



8. — Out-of-door Games, 

Games of Chase. — Tag. Drop the handkerchief. Cat 
and mouse. Hunt and tag. Witch in jar. Grocery 
store. Tame fox and chickens. Tom Tiddler's ground. 
Blind-man's-buff. Birds. Mailman. Hopping bases. 
Hill Dill. Last couple out. Three deep. Cross tag. 

Bacing. — Potato-race. Hoop-race. Dashes. Eelay- 
race. Jumping-seat race. 

Hurling and Throwing. — Tossing ball. Tossing bean- 
bag. Dead ball. Tossing bean-bags through hole, into 
a box or circle, or through a hoop. School-ball. Dodge- 
ball. Throwing at target. Ring toss. Pass ball. Ten- 
pins. Egg hat. Balloon-ball. Grace hoops. 

Contests. — Basket-ball. Base-ball. Foot-ball. Cricket. 

Jumping. — Jump rope. High jump. Broad jump. 
Running jump. Pole jump. Vaulting. 

Hunting. — Hide in sight. Hunt eraser. I spy. Hare 
and hounds. 

Dual Contests. — Push from ring. Hold stick on floor. 
Twisting sticks. Hand-wrestle. Elbow-wrestle. Wrest- 
ling — Rough-and-tumble, Side-hold, Collar-and-elbow, 
Back hug. Cock-fighting. Rider ball. Boxing. Tug- 
of-war. Drawing even. London Bridge. Battle square. 
Keep-ball. Balloon-ball. 

Marching and Miscellaneous. — Russian file. Going to 
Jerusalem. Spin the platter. Hop-scotch. Follow the 
leader. Thread the needle. 



The Daily Programme 137 

9. — School-room Games. 

Contests. — Stick on floor. Hand-wrestling (either 
hand). Twisting sticks. Wrestling (only on mats). 

Running. — Potato-race, individual or by sides. Relay- 
race. Tag (through mark). Hunt and tag. 

Ball Games. — Balloon-ball. Keep-ball. 

Hurling or Throiuing. — Bean-bags into circle, or the 
board or hoop. Pitching rings — pretty exercise using 
arms instead of sticks ; rings may easily be made by 
children from rattan. 

Jumping. — Over pointer. 

Miscellaneous. — Jumping seats. Free play. Eings, 
balls, floor-walls. 

A small book entitled " One Hundred Games," pub- 
lished by the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, 
contains many others. 

10. — The Automatic Element 

While the writer deprecates reducing to mechanism 
those portions of the school life in which judgment and 
spontaneity should have full play, it is evident that a 
great many details connected with the movements of 
classes, the distribution of materials, the collection and 
care of work, should be made nearly automatic. A rea- 
sonable amount of system in such details in reality 
ministers to freedom. It conduces to the same kind of 
economy as those personal habits of which we have so 
many, and those conventionalities of life which make 
•things go so smoothly and tend to promote a good 
understanding. The method which an individual fol- 



138 School Management 

lows day after day iu dressing and undressing, eating, 
writing, or walking, makes life less a burden, and sets the 
mind of the individual free for larger and higher things. 
So it is in the school. If such matters as the distribu- 
tion of pens, pencils, copy-books, papers, and readers 
become self-regulating, teacher and pupils are set free 
for more important things, to say nothing of the avoid- 
ance of noise and confusion. Pupils enjoy being asked 
to act as assistants for a week or a month, in what 
may be called the school housekeeping, and in the 
performance of these duties get a desirable form of 
training. 

11. — Planning and Adaptation, 

Enough has been said concerning the daily programme 
to show that it is largely a matter of planning and adapta- 
tion of means to end. Every teacher should be allowed 
to make such slight changes in her daily plans as will 
meet the conditions caused by the weather and other 
variables. In spring and autumn, the well-arranged out- 
of-door excursions for the purposes of nature study, his- 
tory, or geography, may be made very valuable. Many 
teachers shrink from this duty as it involves a different 
kind of control, and more skilful management. 

The work of each day should be so carefully conceived 
as to go on smoothly, and no slight thing should be per- 
mitted to change a programme. As it is desirable that 
children come happily to school, it is no less important 
that each day's work be finished in the time assigned to it, 
and that pupils go to their homes without too much wea- 
riness, full of pleasant recollections of the day, and with 
only such home tasks before them as can be performed 



The Daily Programme 139 

in a reasonable time. The recreation of the child out of 
school is an important element in his education, and 
should not be overlooked by the teacher. 

The detention of pupils after school, either for pun- 
ishment or lessons, is to be avoided. Nothing discounts 
the teacher and the school so much as that continuous 
after-school session, which shows that bad habits are 
being formed, and that the boys and girls of that class 
are not being held up to the modern standard of promp- 
titude, faithfulness, and despatch. If the work of each 
day is forceful, well-rounded, and complete, there is 
strength and courage for the next, and so the days move 
on in proud, joyous succession. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Why is the daily programme important? 

2. The significance of the opening exercise. 

3. The hours of daily session. 

4. The grading of the rural school. 

5. Relief and recreation in the programme. 

6. Fatigue in its educative bearings. 

7. To what extent are gymnastics and games intellectual and 
ethical in their influence ? 

8. What activities may be made self-regulating ? 

9. In what spirit and in what condition should pupils go home 
at night ? 



CHAPTER XI 
THE RECITATION 

The deepest interests of the school are focused in the 
recitation. It is here that the mind is strengthened, that 
knowledge is broadened, that character is formed. In 
the light of the new education, the recitation enlists all 
the powers of the teacher and the pupil. It is the su- 
preme moment of effort, when nothing but the best that 
teachers and pupils are capable of doing ought to be 
permitted. 

All that we have found to be true relative to the 
breadth of culture of the teacher, his judgment and his 
skill, and the physical condition of the school-room, 
should be kept in mind as pertinent to this particular 
topic. As the orator or the preacher draws upon the 
stored-up energies of a lifetime, and brings all his 
powers to the service of a single hour, so the teacher 
must come to the recitation period with reserve strength 
and enthusiasm. Unless the preacher is unusually elo- 
quent, a short sermon is often more fruitful than a long 
one ; so it sometimes happens that the recitation may 
be shortened to advantage for the sake of avoiding dul- 
ness, especially when the teacher feels that he has ex- 
pended his best force. The shortened recitation gives 
more time for study, which is always desirable. 

140 



The Recitation 141 

1. — The Doctrine of Interest. 

While character is the end of all teaching, interest is 
both means and end. While we are greatly indebted to 
Herbart and his disciples for their exposition of the doc- 
trine of interest, and while they have helped to give the 
subject the proper place in pedagogy, it is not really 
new. All educational writers from the time of Plato 
have recognized interest as the condition of good teach- 
ing, and the atmosphere which pervades true living ; 
for the principle is applicable to all life and all the ac- 
tivities of men. We do better and more cheerfully what 
we love to do. The interest which impels us to action 
may be, first, a desire for the thing to be achieved ; or, 
second, the pleasure found in the process. The boy 
desires to build a toy barn in which he is to house his 
wooden horses and cattle. The little girl would pro- 
vide for her doll the proper articlesrof^clothing. In 
both cases there is the thought and the ideal, so in- 
tensely captivating, of the result to be attained. There 
is also pleasure and excitement connected with every 
step which leads to that result. It is worth while to 
notice in passing that the child's pleasure is greatest 
when the nurse or the parent renders the least assistance 
that is necessary to enable the child to do, be it ever so 
crudely, the work required. Here we see the principle 
of self-activity asserting itself, and interest its chief 
partner in the business. 

What an infinite amount of light this sheds upon the 
work of the primary school ! The formal recitation does 
not appear there. It is a place of ceaseless activity, 
guided and aided by the teacher only so far as may be 



142 School Management 

necessary to help the children achieve by their own ef- 
forts. To secure a maximum of self- direction is the 
rule, and to permit rough, crude work in drawing or 
construction, for the sake of the larger interest and the 
added strength which follow. 

The general theory, therefore, is that all activities, in- 
cluding the recitation, are to furnish rich and abounding 
interest. The teacher, by his deftness and skill, is to 
make the journey along which the student travels as 
attractive as possible. 

There has been considerable discussion as to whether 
or no the modern school, with its interesting work and 
happy children, makes things too easy, and hence fails 
to develop perseverance and pertinacity. Professor 
Charles McMurry says : * " Many schoolmasters 
and book-makers have been so enamored of the 
doctrine of hardship and distress in learning, that they 
have deemed it one of their highest functions to invent 
artificial difficulties, there not being sufficient of these 
in the natural course of school affairs. One of the Ger- 
man writers, as quoted by Paulsen, says that one of the 
peculiar merits in the study of Latin, as taught in his 
time, was that it was extremely difficult, so much so, in- 
deed, that the boy in his later life would never find such 
difficulties to meet, and, if he had mastered his Latin, it 
was certain he could master any lesser difficulties that 
he would later encounter. 

" But anyone who has considered the vast stretch and 
variety of studies opening up before every child, and of 
the great number of inherent and unavoidable difficul- 
ties which beset his course in every study, will abandon 

* *' Elements of General Method," page 151, 



The Recitation 143 

forever the idea of inyenting educational hardships and 
conundrums." 

It seems that anyone who urges this view cannot have 
studied his own life, and analyzed the motives and influ- 
ences that have inspired him to action. The very 
hardest tasks of peace and war to which men have had 
to address themselves have been charged with interest, 
and have been carried through with enthusiasm. As 
new generations of teachers come into the field, we are 
likely to hear less of this argument. 

It seems hardly necessary to say that the teacher him- 
self is often the source of interest. Professor DeGarmo 
declares"^ that " Interest often follows the teacher. A 
pleasing personality, a happy method of presentation, 
will frequently secure an interest on the part of the 
student which is active as long as it lasts. It is not un- 
common to find teachers who make any subject that 
they teach interesting. Such teachers are highly prized, 
for they bring student and study into the happiest con- 
tact, thus presenting each body of ideas in such a way 
that it has the best possible chance of becoming vivid. 
In many cases, however, the interest awakened is due, 
not to the study itself, but to the one who teaches it. 
In another grade, under another teacher, it becomes 
tedious, so that, unless it is contributory to some other 
body of ideas that is vivid, the study is likely to prove 
unprofitable." 

We see, therefore, that the general bearing of interest 

must be kept in mind at every point. The lesson may 

be carefully prepared and may be taught in accordance 

with the rules, but if the teacher lacks a pleasing man- 

* "Interest and Education," page 65. 



144 School Management 

ner, interest may fail. On the other hand, a teacher 
may be a charming person with an enthusiastic manner, 
and yet fail because of insufficient knowledge or un- 
skilled method. 



2. — Preparation by Teacher. 

The first thought of the teacher should be concerning 
the objects to be served by the recitation, and the 
second, the best means of securing those ends. Among 
the ends to be sought through the recitation are : 

1. To broaden and strengthen the life interests of 
the child. — There can be no larger purpose than this, 
and in seeking the lesser ends the larger should never 
be overlooked. For example, it is highly important 
that a history lesson should give mental training and 
add something to the student's knowledge. But it is 
still more to be desired that by means of the lesson he 
adds to his sympathetic interest in human progress, 
and in the men and women who have lived and fought 
for principles. 

2. Adequate knowledge. — Every lesson should con- 
tain a few clear and definite truths. These are to be 
made vivid, and by illustration and repetition are to be 
impressed upon the minds of the class. 

3. To cultivate expression. — By this we do not mean 
the utterance of what has been committed to memory; 
but rather sucli expression as springs from the thought 
of the pupils under the stimulus of questions and con- 
versation. 

4. To secure co-operation. — ^The competitive system, 
which is fostered by marks and prizes, and which gives 



The Recitation 145 

all the applause to brilliant performance, is ethically 
wrong. Selfishness is the reigning evil of the world. 
The school must do something to check it. The recita- 
tion offers such an opportunity. Let praise be given to 
anyone who contributes anything, however small, to the 
interest of the hour. Let it be considered discourteous 
to raise the hand, to snap the fingers, or to make any 
other demonstration while a pupil is endeavoring to 
speak. Let the slow pupils have their opportunity. 
Let the abler ones assist, and thus experience the pleas- 
ure of helping others. Let the spirit of co-operation 
prevail. 

6. To arouse and discipline the mind. — This purpose 
will restrain the teacher from too much lecturing and 
talking, and will make him carefully prepare his ques- 
tions which are to occasion a sort of mental gymnastic. 

6. To develop executive ability. — More and more the 
school-room is becoming a laboratory. Teaching is to 
be real. This fact is best illustrated by schools like 
Hampton and Tuskegee, but it applies everywhere. 
The recitation is to summon to action all the senses as 
well as the motor powers. Apparatus is to be used. 
Illustrations are to be drawn upon the blackboard. 
Pictures and specimens are to be exhibited. The stere- 
opticon is to be called into service. Maps and charts are 
to be made. Thus the teacher's preparation for the lesson 
will take into account the various services which the 
pupil may render in helping to make the recitation 
what it should be. 



146 ^School Management 

3. — Plans of Lessons, 

With a full and definite conception of the objects to 
be obtained, the teacher will next consider some of the 
means to be used. The wise teacher will make written 
notes which will serve the same purpose as the lawyer's 
brief, and will indicate the means to be used in the reci- 
tation. Some of these are : 

1. A statement of the order of topics. These should 
be arranged, not only in a sequence which is natural, 
but correlations and cross-references should be sug- 
gested. 

2. Proper questions should be thought out. The 
principle of apperception should govern this part of the 
work, and some deference should be given to the order 
suggested by the five formal steps, to which reference 
will be made in another chapter. Great care should be 
taken in the selection of questions. The best rule for 
this is, that every question should call for the expres- 
sion of a thought along the trunk-line of the lesson. 
The relations of cause and effect should be kept in 
mind. Skill in questioning goes far to make the recita- 
tion educative. 

3. The plan should include a list of the apparatus 
and illustrative material which is to be used. The 
teacher should see that this is ready and at hand. 
Nothing so endangers the success of the recitation as to 
have to find materials, or to have to send pupils into 
another part of the building for them, while the work is 
in progress. 



The Recitation 147 



4,.— Method, 



It is generally agreed that there is no such thing as 
the method in teaching a lesson. Every good teacher 
will observe sound general principles, and his method 
will be the putting of himself into the vrork. Every 
great teacher, whether it be Pestalozzi or Thomas Ar- 
nold, has an individuality which gives a unique charac- 
ter to his teaching. Some of the best teachers of to-day 
are without normal training. They have such intuition 
and tact that they are called natural teachers. There 
are a few simple rules of method which are sometimes 
forgotten by good teachers : 

1. The voice should be natural and conversational. 
The cultivation of sharp, shrill tones is too often imi- 
tated by the pupils, and the effect is disagreeable. In 
speaking in subdued, mellow tones the teacher econo- 
mizes his own strength, and commands a higher degree 
of attention from his pupils. 

2. In all questioning the teacher should address the 
entire class, unless some individual is upon the floor. 
When the question is asked before the pupil is called, 
the minds of all are alert and expectant ; in other words, 
the whole class is working. This applies in all class ex- 
ercises. To permit pupils to read or spell around in 
turn encourages idleness. After the pupil has performed 
his part he settles into such a state of mental inertia 
that he often loses his place and so is unable to recite 
promptly. The test of good teaching is seen in the 
extent to which the teacher holds the entire class to the 
work in hand. If, when a question is asked, every hand 
comes up, there is evidence of supreme excellence. All 



148 School Management 

oral and test work in number, and review work in his- 
tory and geography, should be done with such care and 
with such deference to the actual abilities of the class 
that every question may receive a ready response from 
a large majority. When, as is sometimes the case in re- 
view work, only two or three respond, there is proof of 
inferior work. Good teaching implies a kind of leader- 
ship that brings pupils up to the mark, and makes them 
ready to think and to do. 

3. The teacher must avoid sarcasm or insinuations of 
any sort. I have known those who have been sarcastic 
for so many years that it is difficult for them to refrain 
from using that weapon upon the slightest provocation. 
Nothing is so killing to that confidence and frankness 
which pupils should feel. To be held up to public ridi- 
cule when one makes a mistake or forgets his lesson 
leaves a sting behind that sometimes makes him hate 
both the subject and the teacher. There can be no 
ideal school where the teacher fails in being courteous 
and kind even to those who do poorly. There may be 
a call for plain-speaking, but let it be the truth and 
nothing more. Wit and humor are excellent helps in 
teaching, and a good hearty laugh is desirable, but no 
teacher should make fun at the expense of an individual 
pupil. 

4. A good teacher will avoid telling anything that 
can be drawn from the pupils. This rule will restrain a 
tendency which some have to lecture or to explain too 
much. 

5. A lesson must not become discursive. Pupils 
with little knowledge of the lesson are quite ready to 
side-track the teacher, and the teacher sometimes leads 



The Recitation 149 

the class far astray from the main path. The writer 
remembers hearing a teacher beginning the lesson with 
an intermediate class upon the discovery of America. 
First came the fact that the father of Columbus was a 
wool merchant, then that wool came from a sheep and 
is made into cloth and various other useful articles, 
while the sheep furnishes mutton, which serves for food, 
so that both food and clothing come from the sheep, 
etc. It happened that the class knew more about sheep 
than about Columbus, so there was a stampede in that 
direction. The desire to correlate weakens rather than 
strengthens teaching when it leads the mind in every 
direction except toward the main point of the lesson. 

5. — Teaching Devices. 

If there has been a tendency in recent times to mini- 
mize the importance of method, this has not been true 
of devices. The teacher possessing originality and 
enterprise will have some new device nearly every day 
which helps to increase interest. There are prob- 
ably ten ways in which a spelling lesson may be 
taught, by using which this exercise is relieved of its 
monotony. 

There are many ways of using the blackboard in 
which the aid of pupils can be enlisted ; for example, 
when a particularly good answer is given, a pupil may 
be permitted to write both question and answer on the 
board. Not only should pupils be permitted to ques- 
tion the teacher before the recitation is over, but he 
should also be allowed to question the class. This 
device works well in reviewing geography and history. 



150 School Management 

The pupils should always be allowed to prepare a list 
of questions which to their minds will bring out the 
best that a topic contains. The best primary teachers 
are fertile in devices for teaching numbers, reading, and 
writing. Even in the secondary school the teacher in 
Latin, Greek, and mathematics will vary his plan of 
procedure from day to day, so that the work is never 
wearisome. 

6. — Illustrative Material. 

We have already referred to the importance of having 
everything in readiness. Teaching is not vital unless 
accompanied by concrete illustrations. Thus, in history, 
the photograph of a great warrior or statesman, or the 
scene of some great event or battle is helpful. Nearly 
every historic event has been idealized in literature, and 
a particular passage of prose or poetry which is needed 
should be at hand. This is a natural and proper form 
of correlation. 

The stereopticon furnishes the very best means of mak- 
ing geography, history, and literature vivid. Every gram- 
mar and high school should have one. In many towns 
and cities a supply of lantern slides is kept at a central 
point, and these are furnished to the several schools 
upon request. If, for example, a series of lessons has 
been given upon the geography of southern Europe or 
upon the history of Greece or Kome, there is the finest 
opportunity possible of making these lessons of lasting 
interest by throwing upon the screen pictures of those 
immortal scenes and works of art which have inspired 
the world. Anyone who has observed the intense in- 
terest and pleasure in which children view these pict- 



The Recitation 151 

ures will have no doubt of their value as an aid to 
teaching. 

Nothing need be said here of the importance of real 
things in all nature and science teaching, including 
physiology and anatomy, neither is it necessary to em- 
phasize again the value of out-of-door work in physical 
geography. Experts and makers of text-books say little 
about this. But every live teacher knows that the 
more learning becomes an experience, and the more all 
the powers of a child are employed in that experience, 
the better. 

7. — The Assignment of Lessons. 

Sufficient time should be taken at the end of each 
recitation to assign definitely and clearly the next lesson. 
For often the recitation is continued until the last mo- 
ment, and the directions for the next day's work are 
given too hurriedly. "When pupils come to study the 
lesson they are in doubt as to just what is required. 
They sometimes sit down at home and spend the evening 
in anxiety and tears, and discover the next day that 
they had attempted to do what the teacher did not ex- 
pect from them. The writer once worked in a secondary 
school where the master insisted that one-fourth of the 
recitation hour should be used in giving out the next 
lesson. He himself taught Greek, and went over the 
lesson, pointing out the things of special importance, 
giving hints as to peculiar constructions and historical 
references. When his students came to their study 
period they knew exactly what w^as expected. Much 
discomfort, both in the school and the home, could be 
obviated if all teachers accepted this caution. 



152 School Management 

There are certain times in the year, at the beginning 
of the autumn term, and toward the end of the spring, 
when pupils are unable to do their best work. Then 
the lessons should be shorter and the teacher should 
be more considerate. It is also a mistake to assign 
long lessons for a day immediately following a holiday. 
Pupils will always appreciate a little leniency at such 
times, and will more than make up the loss by their 
fidelity at other times. 

8. — Preparation by Pupils. 

In another chapter something more will be said con- 
cerning study periods at home and in school. It is 
enough now to emphasize again the point that each 
day's work should be complete and that pupils should 
do faithfully the work at the time intended, thus avoid- 
ing those arrearages which are such a drag upon the life 
of the school, as well as upon the individual. A habit 
of promptitude must be formed in the performance of 
tasks, and the teacher must esteem this as of equal im- 
portance to any benefit that may come from the lesson 
itself. The value, and the necessity, of punctuality and 
promptitude in our modern life are self-evident. Life is 
intense and rapid, and the person who wins must be 
able to summon his energies and respond at the mo- 
ment ; so the school has a new function growing out of 
modern conditions, making it imperative to train chil- 
dren to think and to act quickly and promptly, and not 
to put off for a single moment what can be done now. 



The Recitation 153 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

X. The function of the recitation. 

2. How self-activity develops interest. 

3. The art of teaching as a source of interest. 

4. What social factors are in the recitation? 

5. How may the recitation serve the ends of mental training ? 

6. Other uses of the recitation. 

7. How may a good lesson plan be made ? 

8. The limitations of method. 

g. Questioning as related to attention. 

10. The killing effect of sarcasm. 

11. The recitation should have unity. 

12. The value of devices and illustrative material. 

13. The assignment of lessons. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE RECITATION (Continued) 

Having considered the preparation for the recitation 
by teacher and pupils and the general spirit of co- 
operation that characterizes good class work, we pass 
now to a discussion of the more formal aspect of teach- 
ing, namely, the successive steps by which we may best 
reach the goal of the recitation. 

1. — The Goal of Instruction, 

In order to bring clearly to mind the nature of the 
immediate aim of the recitation, let us recall a few 
concrete illustrations. A familiar topic in the study 
of the American Revolution is the cause that led to the 
open resistance of the colonies. In treating this topic 
the skilful teacher will utilize many familiar incidents 
of the pre-Revolutionary period in such a way as to call 
up a vivid picture of some of the dramatic events. It 
is not, however, in the details of this picture that the 
chief value of the recitation lies. The aim is to go 
back of the details and to teach some general truth, such 
as the tendency of Americans and other Anglo-Saxon 
peoples to resist by extreme measures every effort to 
levy taxes upon them by a government in which they 
have no voice. This is an idea that the pupils will be 

154 



The Recitation 155 

called upon constantly to apply, not only in the future 
study of the Bevolutionary War, but in the study of 
the literatui-e and history of other periods and other 
peoples. It is just the possibility of application to a 
large number of particular cases that constitutes the 
great value and significance of such an idea as the cen- 
tral thought for a recitation. 

Similarly, a recitation dealing with the climate and 
location of New York City, with the neighboring rivers 
and other routes of trade, and with the resources and 
products of tributary cities and countries, will have as 
its central aim to teach how New York, as a type of a 
great trade centre, has attained its commercial emi- 
nence. Here, again, it will be seen that the real aim of 
the recitation lies beyond the series of details presented, 
and is found in a general truth that gives the key to the 
understanding of a large number of facts concerning 
commercial centres. 

Again, behind particular problems involving the buy- 
ing and selling of grain or lumber will be seen some 
general truth in the form of a rule of arithmetical opera- 
tion or a principle of commercial transaction. The 
mastery of this rule or principle and its application in 
further investigation are the true reasons for directing 
the attention of pupils to such problems. 

Examples might be multiplied, but we may assume 
without further discussion that the immediate aim of 
every recitation is to teach a general truth and its ap- 
plication to concrete problems. Such a statement of 
the immediate aim of instruction is, of course, independ- 
ent of the view one may take of the ultimate or deeper 
aim of education. For, obviously, whatever this final 



156 School Management 

purpose may be, there will be some body of general 
truths that will be considered essential, and these truths 
will have value just to the extent to which they may be 
applied to actual human needs. 



%—The Problem of Metliod. 

The problem of method, then, may be briefly stated 
thus : How in a recitation may we proceed most effec- 
tively to lead pupils to grasp and apply a general 
truth? 

An obvious and, at first sight, a satisfactory solution 
of this problem is to present the general truth directly 
to the pupils in the form of a rule, definition, or maxim, 
and when this has been mastered, to give opportunity 
for its application to concrete instances. This is, in fact, 
the method very frequently followed, and it was formerly 
much more common in school work than now. A rule 
for the calculation of square root, for example, is given 
to be memorized, and this is followed by a number of 
problems to which the rule is to be applied. Or defini- 
tions of flood-plain and isthmus are to be mastered out- 
right, and the application is often found, if at all, in 
naming and locating examples of these land forms 
through the study of text-books and maps. 

Experience has shown, however, that, simple and direct 
as this method of approaching general truths seems, it 
does not accomplish satisfactorily the purpose for which 
it is intended. It seems to be a fundamental law of the 
human mind that general truths are not only discovered, 
but understood and appreciated as well, through the 
study of a number of particular instances to which the 



The Recitation 157 

general truth applies. Individual trees must be seen 
before the general idea " tree " is apprehended. Vari- 
ous generous acts must be seen and admired before the 
general idea of generosity as an admirable quality is 
grasped. 

To present the general truth before the particular 
instances is, therefore, to reverse the natural order of the 
mind's activity, and is in that sense unscientific. Before 
concrete examples and illustrations have been presented 
pupils are likely wholly to misunderstand or to under- 
stand only vaguely the statement of a general truth. 
Furthermore, it is natural that pupils should approach 
without any warmth of interest a general truth that 
they are not prepared to understand. The important 
advantage of the pupil's best interest is accordingly lost 
when such an attempt at a short cut is made. So that, 
while it might seem possible to economize time and 
energy by proceeding directly to a general truth, such 
procedure in reality defeats its own purpose. 

It is clear, then, that we can avoid a serious danger of 
method and provide for a clear understanding of a gen- 
eral truth and for interest in it, by presenting in ad- 
vance a number of appropriate particular instances in 
which the general truth is illustrated. But here again 
a difficulty presents itself. To revert to an illustration 
already used, the details of the American resistance to 
the Stamp Act and to the tea tax are probably as unfa- 
miliar to the pupils as the general truth that Anglo- 
Saxon j)eoples strongly object to being taxed by a gov- 
ernment in which they are not represented. How, then, 
are we to approach an unfamiliar general truth by means 
of particular instances that are themselves unfamiliar ? 



158 School Management 

The answer to this question is twofold. In the first 
place, particulars are usually easier to understand than 
generalizations. It is relatively a simple matter for 
pupils to form an accurate idea of the Stamp Act, the 
tea tax, and the closing of American ports; to picture 
the ways in which the colonists first showed their dis- 
approval of these acts, and to understand why the con- 
tinuation of these objectionable acts finally aroused the 
Americans to armed resistance. It is relatively difiicult 
for children, before they are acquainted with some such 
facts, to grasp the idea that taxation without represen- 
tation is tyranny. 

But in the second place, we must answer that there 
is ■ a real and serious difiiculty in the presentation of 
unfamiliar facts, however concrete they may be. A 
complete method of instruction must, therefore, point 
out the solution of this difficulty. We may get a clue 
to this solution by reflecting for a moment upon the 
way in which we constantly deal with unfamiliar objects 
and ideas. 

3. — Apperception, 

It is a matter of common experience that different 
persons observing the same object may get very differ- 
ent impressions. A trained botanist, meeting for the 
first time a rare species of Phlebodium, at once notices 
the large fronds, broadly ovate in outline, with nine 
lanceolate spreading divisions. A housekeeper, in 
search of material for the adornment of her drawing- 
room, sees in the same fern something that meets mod- 
erately well the requirements of her scheme of decora- 
tion, though she observes that the leaves are somewhat 



The Recitation 159 

too stiff and yellow for her purpose. The city boy, 
whose range of experience with respect to plant life is 
limited to a few struggling potted flowers and the shrubs 
and trees of a small park, interprets the fern as a kind 
of bush somewhat smaller and a good deal more strag- 
gly than those he has seen before ; while a little child 
is amazed and delighted with what appears to him to 
be a wonderful bunch of green feathers. 

In each one of these cases the person has interpreted 
the new object in accordance with his interests and his 
previous experiences. The object is the same in every 
case, but the meaning of the object varies greatly ac- 
cording to the knowledge of other objects with which 
the new one may be compared and related. Something 
like this occurs whenever a person encounters an unfa- 
miliar object or idea. There is a tendency to classify 
the new thing, to associate it with similar things already 
known, to bring it out of its isolation into its proper 
relations with other things. 

It is a general law of mental activity that experience 
is widened and enriched by this process of assimilating 
newly presented material and incorporating it into the 
body of knowledge already organized. This is a simple 
statement of the law of apperception, concerning which 
so much has been said and written during recent years 
under the impulse due to Herbart and his followers. 
Professor James has pointed out that there is really 
nothing more in the law of apperception than in the 
long familiar law of association as expounded by psy- 
chologists and that much confusion of thought has 
resulted from the efforts of certain educational writers 
to surround the idea of apperception with a sort of 



160 School Management 

mystic potency that can solve all of the teacher's difl&- 
culties. 

It is true, however, that, simple and commonplace as 
the idea of apperception is, there has been and still is a 
marked tendency for teachers to ignore its bearing on 
the problems of method. Arithmetic is often taught as 
if its processes had no vital connection with the every- 
day concerns of the pupils ; geography as if it had only 
a remote bearing, if any, upon the immediate and famil- 
iar surroundings ; history as if it began and ended in 
times and places out of all relation to present interests 
and problems. 

4. — Summary of Principles, 

To sum up the discussion thus far, we have seen, 
first, that the aim of the recitation is to develop a general 
truth and to provide for its practical application ; sec- 
ond, that the most effective approach to a general truth 
is through properly chosen particular cases that illus- 
trate it ; and third, that these particular cases, so far as 
they are unfamiliar, can be understood and interpreted 
only by means of related knowledge already in the pos- 
session of the pupils. 

Every complete recitation will, then, conform to the 
requirements just stated. This, of course, does not ap- 
ply to every class exercise that occupies a " period " of 
the day's work, for such an exercise often constitutes 
only a part of the complete recitation. The general 
truth may, in some cases, be reached only after a series 
of exercises extending over several days or even weeks, 
but for our present purpose all of these exercises are 



The Recitation MM 

considered as parts of a single recitation. The five 
formal steps of instruction as expounded by Herbart 
and his followers are simply an application and ampli- 
fication of the three principles above stated. We may 
now make a very brief statement concerning each o^ the 
five steps. 

5. — Herbarfs Five Formal Steps, 

1. Prepabation. — We have seen that new ideas are 
interpreted or apperceived by means of related ideas 
already familiar. The pupils of a class approach the 
new ideas entering into the subject-matter of a recita- 
tion with a great variety of experience gained in school 
and out, some of it clear and well classified, some ill- 
defined and scattered. The teacher must, of course, 
meet his pupils on their own ground. To attempt any- 
thing else means certain failure. 

The first step toward the goal of the recitation, there- 
fore, is to prepare the minds of the pupils to receive 
and understand the new thought. By means of discus- 
sion, question, suggestion, and direct statement of facts, 
the appropriate familiar ideas must be recalled vividly 
to the minds of the pupils. 

There is danger in this step of the recitation of fail- 
ing to centre all of the ideas upon a definite point and 
of leading thus to confusion rather than to clearness. 
This danger may be avoided by stating at the outset 
in simple, definite language the aim of the recitation. 
Anything that does not bear upon this aim can then be 
ruled out and the preparatory matter can be sharply 
focussed upon the central thought. 

This step may frequently be made very brief ; often, 



162 School Management 

however, the greater part of the time devoted to the en- 
tire recitation may be required. Sometimes a brief re- 
view of the results of a previous recitation may be the 
best preparation for advanced work ; at other times it may 
be necessary to cover a wide and varied field of experi- 
ence in order to bring the pupils to a point from which 
they can attack the new ideas to advantage. 

Reference to the beginning of the present chapter will 
furnish an illustration of the first step in construction. 
In the first paragraph there is a statement of the aim as 
the treatment of " the successive steps by which we may 
best reach the goal of the recitation." The next four 
paragraphs are a preparation in the form of a statement 
of facts concerning recitations on familiar topics in his- 
tory, geography, and arithmetic. 

2. Peesentation. — When the preparation has been 
completed, the way is open for the second step of in- 
struction, and the great advantage of the preparatory 
step should now show itself in the ease and rapidity with 
which the pupils can receive and assimilate the new 
facts. 

Here, as in the first step, the initial aim furnishes a 
standard for the admission or rejection of subject-mat- 
ter. The purpose of the new matter presented is to 
lead up quickly and by as close sequence as possible to 
the general idea that is in view. Nothing that does not 
contribute distinctly to this aim will properly be ad- 
mitted. 

The form in which the presentation of new matter may 
best be made will vary with circumstances. In general, 
however, there are two ways in which the presentation 
may be made, namely, the method of direct presentation 



The Recitation 163 

and tlie so-called developing method. According to the 
first method, the new facts are given outright to the pu- 
pils either by means of text-books or through lectures. 
This is the method of presentation that is at present 
most widely used, but while perhaps the easier and ap- 
parently more effective method, it is open to serious ob- 
jections. The appeal of this method is likely to be far 
more to the verbal memory than to the real understand- 
ing of pupils. Interest and spontaneity may easily be 
stifled by too constant or too close adherence to this 
method of direct presentation. 

The developing method aims to get the new facts be- 
fore the pupils mainly through conversation and discus- 
sion on the part of teacher and pupils. Instead of 
learning outright the answers to the main problems in- 
volved in a lesson, the pupils are active in anticipating 
so far as possible the problems and in solving them on 
their own initiative. While the developing method has 
the obvious advantage of securing the active participa- 
tion of the pupils in the development of the thought and 
consequently a fresher and fuller interest, it also has 
its limitations. There are many facts that it would 
be folly to expect pupils to anticipate. Attempts to de- 
velop such facts usually result in mere guessing, which 
is, of course, worse than valueless. 

The conclusion would seem to be that the developing 
method may well be used to a much greater extent than 
it usually is, but that it must often be supplemented by 
the direct presentation of facts through text-books and 
by the teacher's words. If the study of text-books is 
preceded by class discussion of the topic under consid- 
eration, many of the dangers of either method by itself 



164 School Management 

may be avoided, the text-book affording a sort of sum- 
mary of what has been partly anticipated in the discus- 
sion. 

3. CoMPABisoN. — After the preparation and the pres- 
entation of new subject-matter, we are ready to make 
use of the facts presented in approaching the general 
truth that we have had in view. To recall a former ex- 
ample, having brought vividly before the pupils the con- 
crete events leading up to the Revolutionary War, we 
direct attention to the elements of difference and simi- 
larity among the various events. The Stamp Act, the 
tea tax, and the trade laws differed in some respects, 
but they were alike in that they were designed to raise 
revenue for England and were imposed by a Parliament 
in which the colonies had no voice. In other words, 
we compare the facts presented in order to discover 
what is the essential truth in all of them. The weak- 
ness of much teaching otherwise effective may be found 
in a failure to go behind the details, for unless the con- 
crete facts are compared and focussed, it is probable 
that no clear and lasting view of the general truth under- 
lying them will be gained. Comparison, then, is the 
bridge that spans the gap between the particulars pre- 
sented in the second step and the general truth toward 
which the aim is directed. 

4. Generalization. — Following the comparison of the 
facts presented and the discovery of the elements com- 
mon and essential to all of them, comes the task of 
stating in concise and accurate form the general truth 
that has been reached. This is by no means always a 
simple or superfluous matter, as one may readily realize 
by considering how difficult it often is to state briefly 



The Recitation 165 

and comprehensively the central thought of a story, 
lecture, or essay. It is usually well to have the gen- 
eral truth stated in the first instance, in the words 
of the pupils, however crude such statements may be. 
It is only in this way that we can be sure that the pupils 
have hold of the truth itself, and not merely of the 
sounding words. It may be desirable afterward to in- 
troduce a statement in the form of a definition or rule, 
or a maxim, such as " Taxation without representation 
is tyranny." 

5. Application. — ^When a clear view of an important 
general truth has been gained, there still remains the 
final and perhaps most important step of instruction. 
A general truth so long as it remains isolated is insig- 
nificant. It is only when it is applied in conduct or in 
interpreting the concrete interests of human life that it 
possesses real value. The general truth that lay at the 
bottom of the events immediately preceding the Ameri- 
can Eevolution is made vital only when it is applied in 
such a way as to give clearer insight into the meaning 
of our own institutions or into the spirit of democracy 
in general. 

It is not always easy to find immediate application 
for the general truths to which instruction leads. In- 
deed, it is clear that an adequate idea of the practical 
bearing of general truths is a matter not of a day or a 
year but of a lifetime. Nevertheless, it must be remem- 
bered that the real test of power is the ability to use 
knowledge, and that just so far as possible provision 
should be made for the immediate application of general 
truths. 

Each one of the school subjects offers opportunities 



166 School Management 

for the application of general truths learned in the 
others. The daily lives of the pupils are filled with 
problems, the solution of which involves the application 
of the very truths that instruction is or should be de- 
signed to impress. The daily events in the political 
and social world can be understood and appreciated 
only when viewed in the light of general truths. It may 
be doubted, then, whether a general truth that does not 
find its appropriate field of application among important 
current interests has a rightful place in a scheme of 
education. 

In the appendix there is a number of plans for reci- 
tations which illustrate the application of the principles 
set forth in this chapter. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Relationship between the moral and intellectual aims of the 
recitation. 

2. Method in the adaptation of truth to particular minds. 

3. Instances of apperception in daily life. 

4. The relation of apperception to interest. 

5. To what extent do the formal steps suggest a universal method? 



CHAPTER Xin 
TRAINING PUPILS TO STUDY 

We hear on every hand a complaint that the modern 
child is not taught to study. This criticism is so uni- 
versal that one sometimes wonders if it is not due to 
the complaining habit, which affects all workers who 
seek high standards and are hampered by all kinds of 
limitations. 

When a class is promoted to a higher grade in the 
grammar school or high school their teachers find the 
pupils lacking in the power of attention and applica- 
tion. Many are unable to state clearly and distinctly 
what they have gathered from the text-book. There is 
a certain flabbiness and weakness of mind, as well as 
evidence of scattered interests, which are most discour- 
aging to their new teachers, and which suggest the idea 
that something has been wrong in their previous train- 
ing. It is often noticed, as the weeks pass, that pupils 
impress their teachers more favorably. This is prob- 
ably due rather to a better acquaintance than to any 
marked development of ability to study. 

It will be seen at once that training pupils to study is 
a fundamental process. Nothing that the teacher can 
do is more essential to intellectual growth and strength. 
It means putting the child in possession of the tools 
with which he is to work, and guiding him to a right use 

167 



168 School Management 

of tliem, or it is like arming him with the weapons with 
which he is to fight life's intellectual battles, and inspir- 
ing him with courage and skill. It is well, therefore, to 
address ourselves to the practical questions, first, what 
are the difficulties to be overcome ? second, how may the 
desired power be secured ? 

1. — Some Difficulties in Learning to Study, 

1. Interests of children are too much scattered. We 
are speaking now of life in some of the large towns and 
cities. There is too much going on. There are many 
enterprises and forms of activity which awaken interest 
and stimulate many grades of thinking. The varied 
life of the street, the bustle and hurry of people at the 
railway stations, docks, and markets, billboards" announ- 
cing marvellous entertainments, military and civic dis- 
plays, holidays just past and those expected, multi- 
plicity of books and magazines — all these and many 
more events with their pleasures and excitements cause 
the child to be interested in a great variety of things. 
The school has a harder task than it did when life was 
simple and the interests of the community were focussed 
largely in the church and the school. 

2. The distractions of variety. Both the home life 
and the school life being many-sided and various tends 
to distraction. By study, we usually mean the acquisi- 
tion of truth from the printed page. This means con- 
centration of thought and vividness of imagination. It 
is apparent that where the child lives in the midst of real 
things, many of which attract and interest him, it is 
harder to secure that continuous and intense application 



Trahimg Pnpih to Study 169 

to the printed page which is implied in fruitful study. 
If a military band passes the school everyone is alert 
and listening, and it takes some minutes for the school 
to again become attentive to the work in hand ; but this 
illustrates what is happening all the time outside of the 
school, so that young minds are diverted and often ab- 
sorbed by current happenings and events. It is true 
that many of these outside occurrences are educative, 
and may be used by the skilful- teacher as a means of 
training pupils to thought and expression, which are 
really the basic elements in all study. 

3. School duties become wearisome. Children at- 
tend school from nine to ten months in the year. There 
is usually more or less pressure. In many cases out-of- 
door life is neglected. Children soon tire of confine- 
ment, and that kind of weariness, which in a former 
chapter we distinguished from fatigue, often makes the 
school hours seem monotonous and dreary. If a child 
dislikes his teacher or is discouraged in his studies, or 
if he is undergoing a process of prodding at home be- 
cause his monthly reports are not flattering, this weari- 
ness increases and it becomes still hai'der for him to 
apply his mind to the task in hand. 

4. Physical conditions may be unfavorable. Bad air, 
poor light, and an unwholesome school-room are always 
baneful in their effects upon study. The same thing 
occurs when the room is too hot or too cold. If the 
pupils themselves are poorly fed, or are suffering from 
loss of sleep, or from any indisposition, their attempts 
to study will be more or less unsuccessful. 

5. What has already been said in a former chapter 
about definitely assigning lessons points to a mistake 



170 School Management 

so often made that it is worth while to refer to it again. 
Pupils cannot be expected to study well unless the way 
has been pointed out to them, so that they know where 
the task begins and where it ends. Any person, young 
or old, likes to see the goal toward which he is working. 
A task that has no end in view is always depressing. 

6. Poor teaching. It is of little use to expect that 
degree of interest and loyalty required for diligent study 
when the teacher is simply a machine, and lacks the 
vital element. All the emphasis that we have given to 
the recitation is useless unless the pupil, acting under 
some legitimate incentive, has entered into his work with 
interest and zeal. 

These, then, are a few of the obstacles which a teacher 
must face in any attempt to cultivate the study habit. 
Let us now inquire what methods are likely to be most 
efficacious in overcoming these obstacles. 

2. — Metliods of Securing Application and Concentration, 

1. Cultivate thought and expression. The work 
should begin in the primary grades. Pupils should be 
trained to see things clearly and to state accurately what 
they have seen. In number work, in nature study, as 
well as in the use of pictures, there is the opportunity 
of developing the power of consecutive and prolonged 
attention, as well as of complete and definite statement. 
This is the beginning of mental strength. Unless 
children can see and state what they have seen and ex- 
perienced, what hope is there that they will be able to 
glean thought from the printed page and clothe it in 
their own language ? 



Training Pupils to Study 171 

A second step is to make the reading lessons serve the 
end of learning to study. Just as soon as pupils can 
read silently stories containing half a dozen sentences 
they should be often asked to read silently, close the 
book, and give the thought in their own language. This 
practice should be continued through the grades. In 
some of the very best schools silent reading and oral 
reproduction are made the principal exercise in the read- 
ing lesson. Pupils by practice acquire remarkable 
quickness in sifting out the ideas in a paragraph and 
equal facility in voicing them. 

2. Study with the pupils. If a class especially needs 
it, the teacher in assigning the lesson in geography or 
history may take up the advance lesson by paragraphs, 
in precisely the manner indicated above. The aim is 
simply to crack the nut and get out the meat as quickly 
as possible. Pursuing this plan, with some slight ex- 
planations or questions by the teacher, a class will 
easily dispose of a page of matter which otherwise might 
baffle and discourage them. While it is true that 
modern teaching seeks an acquaintance with things, 
and strives to promote experience, yet the wisdom of 
the world is locked up in books, and one of the great 
ends of education must be to acquire the mastery of the 
key which will unlock any room in this great store- 
house. 

3. Supervise the study periods. The teacher who 
asks his pupils to study, and then proceeds to write 
letters or make up his reports, is not only losing an op- 
portunity, but is violating his trust. He should be at 
the service of his pupils, passing around from one to the 
other, giving the needed word of advice or encourage- 



172 School Management 

ment, making sure that all the conditions for earnest 
work are as favorable as possible. All study without 
recitation would, of course, be as faulty as all recitation 
and no study. Careful oversight of each individual in 
his daily work in connection with the methods already 
suggested have been found quite successful in counter- 
acting the effects of outside distractions and dissipations. 

4. Demand a proper amount of home study. The 
greatest care should be taken in assigning the home 
tasks. What we have said about the need of definite- 
ness and fulness of explanation on the part of the 
teacher has special pertinence here. It should be kept 
in mind that homes are not usually well supplied with 
reference books and it is often difficult for pupils to 
have a quiet room to themselves. That kind of home 
work should be assigned which does not require the 
use of a library, and which is best adapted to home con- 
ditions. It is better to have pupils do a moderate amount 
of work well than to be burdened and discouraged and 
to have the idea prevail in the home that the teacher is 
a sort of natural enemy and disturber of the peace. 

5. Hold pupils responsible. After a teacher has left 
no stone unturned in teaching pupils to study he must 
hold them rigidly responsible for the best use of their 
time. Not only must there be oral tests, such as occur 
with the daily recitation, but brief written tests should 
be given frequently, for in no other way can the 
mind be so well trained to formulate whatever ideas 
have been acquired. They give facility in the use of 
the mother-tongue and act as an incentive to faithful 
study. Being a matter of almost daily occurrence 
they are the cause of no special worry. 



Training Pupils to Study 173 

6. Eegard the law of apperception. This law may be 
regarded as a genuine truth which is larger and deeper 
than any of the devices we have suggested. The suc- 
cess in each new step in learning depends upon the 
thoroughness with which the previous steps have been 
taken and the degree of interest and concentration with 
which this knowledge has been welded together. If a 
series of nature lessons has been given with such en- 
thusiasm as to create an appetite for more, and if these 
lessons have been presented so progressively as to fit 
together and make a consistent body of knowledge, 
each forward step will be taken with delight, both by 
teachers and pupils. The new lesson is partly learned 
by reason of the firm grasp which the mind has of 
what has already been learned. It makes the process 
of study easier, therefore, to have assigned as a lesson 
that portion of truth which may be readily and quickly 
apperceived and joined to the previous lessons. All 
our past experience is our capital, which we invest in 
new enterprises, and so make additions to our wealth. 
Where to invest and when to invest, and how much, 
calls for the guidance of a far-sighted and experienced 
person, who is our teacher. 

These are a few of the suggestions that will occur to 
every thoughtful teacher who desires to have her pupils 
study effectively. It is encouraging to know that in 
using such devices and in overcoming the obstacles 
which we have indicated, the power of attention is 
being developed and the conscious will is more and 
more at the service of the learner. The interest he feels 
assumes a higher and more mature form. He is held 
to his task not merely by the attractiveness of the 



174 School Management 

lesson material and the desire to gain tlie approval of 
his teacher, but because of the pleasure of surmounting 
difficulty and of winning the victory. 

Again, a pupil who learns to study and can dig at his 
lessons even when there is a noise in the street or peo- 
ple are inconsiderately talking in the same room is ac- 
quiring a habit of concentration, a conscious strength 
for the problems of life, which are priceless possessions. 

How clearly it is seen that every activity of the 
school has its moral as well as its intellectual side. 
How manifest it is that, after all, knowledge is second- 
ary and that in learning to study, the pupil is not really 
engaged in a hunt after facts, but is gaining power of 
untold value. He is learning to realize himself and to 
organize his moral and intellectual forces for the great 
battles of life. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

X. What is it to study? 

2. How may parents assist the teachers ? 

3. Means of preventing weariness. 

4. The difference between voluntary and involuntary attention. 

5. The teaching that commands attention. 

6. The value of quietness. 

7. How early may students be taught the value of apperception? 



CHAPTER XIV 

REVIEWS AND EXAMINATIONS 

In the use of reviews and examinations we should be 
governed by the same motives and aims we have fol- 
lowed in training pupils to study. All school work is 
broadly educative. We must not let down an instant our 
high standard of character building. As a review is 
simply a lesson made longer because it is partly repeti- 
tion, so every examination is simply an extension of the 
recitation idea and must be conducted upon the same 
principles. The pupil must not be overtaxed or wor- 
ried ; he must not be put under temptation to act dis- 
honestly ; he must not be permitted to neglect his 
daily work in the hope that by cramming he may pass 
an examination and so maintain his standing. Let us 
candidly and frankly consider the more salient phases 
of this subject. 

1. — The Value of Thoroughness, 

Keeping in mind the law of apperception, we see how 
desirable it is that lesson truths should be clearly pre- 
sented and understood and should also, as far as is pos- 
sible, be welded together into a compact whole. The 
review of a series of lessons, or of an entire subject, is a 
good means of making the class see the body of truth 
in better perspective. The relation of the parts to the 

175 



176 School Management 

whole are more clearly discerned, and causal relations 
stand out more prominently. 

Many teachers err in failing to carry on from day to 
day a review which requires a few minutes of the reci- 
tation time. Such a review is like the rear-guard of an 
army. It gathers up the straggling points, so that when 
the end of the term is reached no time has to be spent 
in making sure that the class has a good grasp of the 
field they have traversed. The writer has known more 
than one teacher who, while having a review, following 
not many weeks behind the advance, had also during 
the last half of the term a re-review which proceeded 
rapidly and overtook both review and advance at the 
end of the term. In all review work emphasis is given 
to ideals that are large and important. Minute and un- 
essential matters are avoided. This saves time and 
helps the pupil to discriminate between great and 
small, essential and non-essential. Much stress is laid 
upon principles, rules, and pivotal events. A few great 
names, dates, and controlling ideas, through this proc- 
ess of repetition, become fixed in the mind and can be 
recalled at will. The child has little occasion to thank 
his teacher unless he puts him in possession of great 
central truths in every department of knowledge in 
such a way that he can count them among his assets. 

2. — Oral and Written Tests. 

In the preceding chapter we have shown the value of 
tests as a means of making the pupils responsible for 
the use of the study period. We wish now to indicate 
their place as a means of revealing to the teacher what 
the individuals of a class actually know. 



Reviews and Examinations 177 

Some years ago oral tests were largely discarded for 
written examinations. As is often the case, the pendu- 
lum probably swung too far. It is quite unusual now 
for a teacher to put her class under the fire of review 
questions for a whole hour. It would be well were it 
possible to recover to some extent what has been lost. 
The old-time teacher possessed power and skill in 
questioning which may well be envied. In an oral test 
where one question follows another, pupils being per- 
mitted to respond by raising the hand, the teacher dis- 
covers who have a ready command of the subject. The 
answers given indicate not only how well his own work 
has been done, but how faithfully his pupils have 
worked. Such oral interrogation of the class seems to 
be a natural accompaniment of the review work. 
Then, too, the oral test has the advantage of the 
written one in that it relieves the class of the almost 
ceaseless use of pen and pencil, which has become 
characteristic of our schools, and calls for a higher 
degree of promptitude than does the written test. 
Another advantage comes from the fact that when 
the exercise is concluded the teacher's work is done, 
and he is not compelled to examine a lot of pa- 
pers, thus taxing his eyes and his braiii when he 
should be gaining rest or recreation. These sugges- 
tions touching the value of oral tests bring to our mind 
the thought that in passing from the old education to 
the new we are ever in danger of abandoning devices 
which have intrinsic worth, and we are reminded that 
progress consists not so much in finding new ways of 
doing things as in making a better and more intelligent 
use of things that are counted old. 



178 School Management 

3. — Educative Examinations, 

In Chapter VI. we have discussed the relation of ex- 
aminations to rewards, prizes, and promotions. We 
have shown that if they are too formal, and come at 
stated times, and if the standing in class and the pro- 
motion of pupils is dependent upon them, they become, 
in many cases, harmful and unhygienic. Dr White 
referred to this subject in forcible language as fol- 
lows : * 

" The tendency of teachers to use a coming examina- 
tion as a whip or spur to urge their pupils to greater 
application is one of the most serious obstacles to be 
overcome in the use of the system. A reliance on such 
help is a misfortune for the teacher and a wrong to the 
pupil. It ought to be recognized as a school crime for 
a teacher thus to allude to an examination. It should 
be permitted to come unheralded." 

It may be assumed that the above statement, coming 
from a person of wide experience and large wisdom, is 
not an exaggeration. Examinations may be given a 
limited importance in determining the promotion of 
pupils without harm, but the evils which attend the 
promotions made upon an examination standard are 
serious. We must now recognize very fully the merits 
of examinations given as a means of cultivating intel- 
lectual strength. Like oral and written tests, examina- 
tions should be incidental and unannounced, and their 
sole aim should be to reinforce the teaching and to de- 
velop the pupil. When, as in these modern days, so 
much of the learning is outside of text-books, and pupils 

*" Elements of Pedagogy," page 204. 



Reviews and Examinations 179 

in an elementary way are engaged iu investigation and 
research, the examination serves many useful purposes. 

4. — Advantages to Pupils, 

1. It calls for a longer, more sustained effort than the 
ordinary recitation or test. While an examination an 
hour or an hour and a half long may cause fatigue, it is 
only in rare instances that evil results follow. It is 
rather beneficial to the young person to summon his 
energies and marshal his forces for a greater and more 
strenuous effort than usual. 

2. The examination is a stronger reminder than the 
recitation or brief test of individual responsibility. A 
pupil will perchance remember while pursuing his 
studies that an examination may come the next day, or 
the next week, and thus be impelled to make provision 
for that occasion. He will be prompted to arrange and 
organize his knowledge so that he can use it when the 
day of testing arrives. He will not be absent from 
school on flimsy pretexts, because he knows that each 
day's knowledge means a link in the chain which is to 
hold him upon examination day. 

3. The examination gives valuable training in lan- 
guage. Pupils should be expected to put their work in as 
good form as possible. This is entirely feasible when 
the examination is not used for some ulterior purpose. 
As an educative means it should represent the best a 
pupil can do in matter of fact, forms of statement, 
quality of penmanship, sentence-making, paragraphing, 
spelling, and punctuation. 

4. The examination, if wisely given, affords excellent 



180 School Management 

training of the pupil's judgment. The topics and ques- 
tions assigned will naturally cover considerable area, and 
will leave room, on the pupil's part, for the exercise of 
discrimination and selection. Thus he will get prac- 
tice in philosophical thinking and reasoning, and this 
will become more and more true as he advances 
through the grades. The higher he gets the more the 
examination should be a test of his reasoning rather 
than of his memory. The school that does not place a 
high estimate upon common sense and sound judgment, 
as shown in examination papers, needs to be reformed. 

5. — Advantages to the Teacher. 

1. Examinations, like oral and written tests, are an 
economical means of finding out what a class knows, and 
to what extent its members can use what they have ac- 
quired. 

2. A set of examination papers will often serve to a 
teacher the purpose of a mirror in which he sees himself 
as a factor in the education of his pupils. He will know 
whether he has undertaken too much, and whether 
fundamental truths have been driven home. In other 
words, by examining his pupils he is testing his own 
work, and is learning how to make his teaching more 
interesting and effective. 

3. The examination of a large class often reveals com- 
mon weaknesses and lapses of judgment. The teacher 
can go over these errors with the whole class, and can 
thus accomplish at a single stroke what under other 
conditions would require much labor. 

4. When parents have too high an opinion of the 



Reviews and Examinations 181 

ability of their own children, a set of examination 
papers is often useful in showing the relative ability of 
the child in question as compared with others. Such 
tangible evidence of the child's actual standing can be 
used by the teacher when difficult questions arise about 
promotion. 

6. — Suggestions to Teachers, 

1. Make tests and examinations both oral and writ- 
ten. Oral tests bring the teacher nearer to the pupil 
and enable him to make his questions perfectly clear. 
He can pursue a line of questioning that will unfold 
the subject more logically and fully than is possible 
in the written test. Thus unity and clearness in sub- 
ject-matter are secured. Written examinations offer 
uniform conditions to all, and from their results the 
teacher can gauge more accurately the relative ability 
of his pupils. 

2. Wliile examinations in the lower grades are largely 
upon matters of fact, in the higher grades they should 
call increasingly for a knowledge of principles, rules, 
causes and effects, relations and correlations. The power 
to draw conclusions, state principles, and to generalize 
should be well developed during the grammar school 
stage. 

3. Examinations should not be so long as to weary 
pupils greatly or to become excessively distasteful. 
In intermediate grades from one-half to three-quarters 
of an hour, in the higher grammar grades one hour, 
and in the high school an hour and a half should be 
maximum limits. 

One examination should not follow closely upon an- 



182 School Management 

other. Too often at the end of the term, or of the year, 
when pupils are not in the best physical condition, a 
series of examinations lasting for several days is given, 
contrary to the laws of hygiene and the advice of physi- 
cians. Abandon the idea of using examinations for 
promotion, or for prizes, and there is little, if any, need 
of this objectionable feature. 

4. Have pupils frequently correct their own papers 
after teachers have pointed out the main truths which 
the examination was intended to teach. This saves 
the teacher, and is an excellent discipline for the pupils. 

5. Do not tell the class when the examination is to 
occur. Let each day's work be done so thoroughly that 
they are never taken off their guard when the test is 
given. In every-day life the demand comes frequently 
for the performance of some special duty. The ability 
to render service at short notice is worth cultivating in 
early life. 

It has been a matter of much concern to educators 
and other thoughtful people that the larger Eastern 
colleges insist upon difficult entrance examinations. 
This can be partially excused by reason of the fact that 
some inferior secondary schools cannot be trusted to 
certificate their candidates, and that other schools of 
higher standing prefer to have their pupils examined. 
Nevertheless, there is a principle at stake here that is 
violated whenever a superior institution sets examina- 
tions for the one that feeds it. This principle is that 
outside parties are quite sure, to do injustice both to 
teachers and pupils of any school where they impose 
rigid examinations. The instruction is likely to be 
narrowed and more attention is given to cramming than 



Reviews and Eooaminations 183 

to educating. I will leave this subject by quoting some 
pertinent remarks by Dr. James E. Kussell : ^ 

" Examinations must have a place in every scheme of 
instruction. Instruction can proceed only when the 
extent and quality of the learner's knowledge is defi- 
nitely understood. Every recitation, every review, is 
such an examination ; further examinations of a formal 
sort are often desirable for the sake both of the teacher 
and of the pupil. But such examinations are given by 
teachers within the school or school system and pri- 
marily for the purpose of instruction. Examinations by 
those outside the school, especially when given for the 
purpose of determining a pupil's ability to undertake an 
entirely new course of instruction, have no educational 
value for the pupil which cannot be secured equally well 
in some less reprehensible way. Such examinations, 
however, are practically necessary when intellectual 
attainment is not the only aim of school instruction, 
and both necessary and inevitable when that instruction 
is inefficient. Outside examinations are imperative 
whenever the secondary schools are unable or unwilling 
to assume the responsibility of meeting the require- 
ments for admission to colleges and universities. 
Until a norm of secondary instruction is established 
and generally recognized, college entrance examinations 
cannot be dispensed with. The sole object of this 
paper is to show that such examinations have no espe- 
cial educational value for those who are examined ; they 
do have a distinct value in our school system and must 
be retained until some better plan is found for keep- 
ing weak schools up to grade and for the elimination of 

* School Review^ January, 1903, page 63. 



184 School Management 

bad teaching. The scheme of college entrance exami- 
nations is altogether a matter of temporary expediency. 
It tests merely the candidate's store of learning and to 
some extent his ability to use that learning ; it does not 
measure his intellectual desires, his moral strength, or 
his aesthetic taste. Meanwhile it is our duty to find 
some way of assuring the intellectual ability which 
students must have on admission to college and at the 
same time of encouraging the preparatory schools to 
emphasize in their course of training the manly virtues 
and the liberal culture which all men need in life." 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. What limitations are to be placed upon thoroughness? 

2. The psychological argument for reviews. 

3. Compare the states of mind accompanying written and oral 
tests. 

4. The examination as an incentive. 

5. The moral issues involved in examinations. 

6. Plans for reducing the paper work of teachers. 



c 



CHAPTER XV 

SCHOOL GARDENS, PLAYGROUNDS, AND 
VACATION SCHOOLS 

To the great mass of children in our large cities 
vacation time calls up associations very different from 
those so eagerly anticipated by the fortunate ones who 
spend the summer months at the sea-shore, among the 
mountains, or on country estates. Instead of green 
fields, invigorating breezes, and shady groves, the 
children who remain in the cities have as their fortune 
noisy streets, sultry air, and occasionally a vacant lot. 
Crowded, poorly ventilated tenements are well-nigh 
uninhabitable during the periods of excessive heat. 
Parks are available as playgrounds for only an insignif- 
icant number of the vast multitude of children. Thou- 
sands must therefore swarm daily in the streets, leading 
aimless lives of enforced idleness, enticing one another 
into mischief, vice, and petty crime. Most games cannot 
be carried on in the crowded thoroughfares without 
seriously obstructing traffic and endangering the lives 
of the children. The police are thus often compelled 
to interfere with the efforts of children to engage in 
innocent enjoyment. Officers of the law come to be 
regarded as natural and arbitrary enemies ; evasion of 
the law and the destruction of property as the normal 
outlet for energy and ambition. 

185 



186 School Management 

It is evident that vacation months spent under these 
unwholesome conditions are worse than wasted. The 
effect upon the physical and moral development of the 
children must be far-reaching and disastrous. Habits 
of smoking, thieving, and gambling develop without 
even the hinderances offered during school time ; lawless 
adventure, craftiness, and dishonesty are encouraged 
by the very necessities of the otherwise unoccupied 
time ; and a full quarter of the whole amount of time 
available for the training of the boys and girls passes by 
unutilized. The idle and crafty boy will most certainly 
prove to be the father of the dissolute and criminal 
man. 

There is a strong call here for a return to nature ; for 
contact with the earth and its creatures, with flowers 
and trees ; for free life in the open fields ; for whole- 
some activity of a kind that will do something to enrich 
the starved lives of the children, that will contribute 
materially to the equipment of the youth for the stern 
struggle that they soon must face, that will strongly 
emphasize the idea of sober, industrious, and law-abiding 
citizenship. 

It is one of the notable signs of the tendency of 
educational thought and practice that so much attention 
has been given during recent years to the solution of 
some of the problems arising out of the social conditions 
just described. There is a growing conviction that 
every school should meet, in a very direct and practical 
way, the social demands of the community in which it 
is located. Among the most conspicuous ways in which 
this conviction has expressed itself is the establishing 
of school gardens, playgrounds, and vacation schools. 



School Gardens and Playgrounds 187 



1. — School Gardens. 

First in point of time, though not so directly in 
response to the vacation needs of city children, was 
the opening of school gardens. For almost fifty years 
school gardens have been recognized in Europe as an 
important and almost necessary means of instruction. 
Austria, Sweden, and Germany were the first to intro- 
duce gardens as the most practical form of agricultural 
nature study, and their example was quickly followed by 
most of the leading European nations. It was not until 
1891 that Boston took the lead in the school-garden 
movement in this country by utilizing a small plot of 
ground in connection with one of the grammar schools 
for the raising of native wild flowers. A few years later 
this same school added another small plot for the 
cultivation of vegetables. Since this beginning, twelve 
years ago, more than fifty cities in the United States 
have made some provision for school gardens. 

2. — Educative Factors, 

The special need of garden work in the congested 
districts of large cities lies in the very limited oppor- 
tunity that the children of these districts have for 
direct knowledge of some of the commonest natural 
phenomena. But aside from this special need, there is 
a peculiar value to such work that applies to all children, 
whatever their locality. This value lies in the close 
connection that is almost necessarily made between 
theory and practice in this form of activity. A pupil 



188 School Management 

must not only be able to describe the difference between 
weeds and vegetables, but he must actually decide the 
difference in a practical way if he is to have a successful 
garden. So also he must apply the test of practice to 
his knowledge of the character and preparation of soil, 
of the time of year best suited to planting, of the habits 
of insects and other forms of animal life injurious or 
beneficial to his garden plants. These are only a few 
of the great number of topics that grow out of the 
practical requirements of successful garden work. 

Much school work is being criticised, perhaps justly 
so, on the ground that it fails to make full provision for 
just this sort of application for theoretical work. In 
almost every human concern outside the school there 
is constant demand for a relatively large amount of 
practice, as opposed to mere reflective study that does 
not end in application. There is, therefore, strong social 
sanction for a close and vital union between theoretical 
and practical work. Another urgent reason for seeking 
a constant outlet for thought in action is found in the 
interest of children, which is rarely satisfied unless 
opportunity is given for the expression of ideas in 
definite, concrete, constructive form. The school garden 
meets both the social and the psychological require- 
ments, by furnishing a centre of activity that pro- 
vides direct and full motive for an important body of 
knowledge about nature. It is evident that, without 
some such centre of active interest, the study of natural 
phenomena must be relatively isolated, formal, and 
dead. 



School Gardens and Playgrounds 189 



3. — Equipment. 

The cost of equipment for school gardens is, of course, 
almost wholly a matter of land values. In some parts 
of the large cities the cost of land is such as to be almost 
prohibitory. A part of the school-yard is in some cases 
set apart for garden purposes. Where vacant lots are 
available in the neighborhood of a school, the use of the 
land may be secured even if the land is not purchased. 
In some cities plots in the public parks have been 
granted to the school, and in at least one case a small 
garden has been opened on the roof of the school- 
building. Where none of these ways of securing the 
ground necessary for a garden are open there remains 
the expedient of using window-boxes, by means of which 
many of the advantages of gardens may be provided. 

When ground space will allow, it is highly desirable 
that each pupil be assigned his own garden-plot. The 
sense of ownership and of individual responsibility that 
results from such an assignment always proves to be 
a powerful and educative influence. The results of 
mistakes and neglect are written large by the hand of 
Nature herself, and even the most backward pupils 
cannot fail to learn her lessons. 

4. — Playgrounds and Play-centres. 

Playgrounds and play-centres were originally not the 
outgrowth of educational but of purely social interest. 
The first playgrounds that were opened in our large 
cities were under the auspices of social settlements and 
other societies having distinctly humanitarian or phil- 



190 School Management 

anthropic aims. To those in constant and intimate 
touch with the conditions that prevail in the crowded 
districts of most large cities, it was evident that through 
lack of opportimity for healthful, spontaneous play 
childhood in these regions was being robbed of its chief 
joy. That the systematic provision for such activity 
has become more and more closely identified with the 
public schools of our cities is evidence of the enlarging 
view of the meaning of education, and consequently of 
the function of the school as a social institution. 

A single instance will illustrate the great need in the 
large cities of recreation centres other than the public 
parks. The city of Chicago is unusually well provided 
with parks of large area, and with connecting boule- 
vards. Yet in this city there are 600,000 to 700,000 
people who live more than a mile from any park. It is 
ordinarily impracticable for a large city to provide 
extensive parks in numbers sufficient to make them 
readily accessible from all parts of the city. The only 
alternative is to find small recreation centres, properly 
distributed over the entire area, and, as every school- 
building as a rule has some form of playground, either 
in a yard, in the basement, or on the roof, it seems 
quite natural that the persons interested in providing 
vacation playgrounds for children should have looked 
to the school-grounds to supply the need. 

The equipment of the playgrounds varies somewhat 
with the size and location. Where the space is con- 
tracted, as in the case of the basement and roof play- 
grounds, the equipment consists of sand-bins, build- 
ing-blocks, jumping-ropes, Indian clubs, dumb-bells, 
bean-bags, balls, rubber quoits, ring-toss apparatus, and. 



School Gardens and Playgi^ounds 191 

occasionally, basket-ball and hand-ball courts. In addi- 
tion to such equipment as this there are provided, in 
the large open-air playgrounds, swings, seesaws, climb- 
ing ropes and ladders, hoops, wheelbarrows and shovels, 
horizontal and parallel bars, and other apparatus suit- 
able for an outdoor gymnasium. In some of the larger 
grounds provision is made for running games, such as 
prisoner's base ; and in some cases hammocks are pro- 
vided, where mothers who come to the grounds with 
their children may put their babies to sleep in the fresh 
air. 

It is an interesting commentary on the knowledge 
that a large proportion of city children have of co-oper- 
ative forms of play, that the swings are by far the most 
popular form of apparatus in the playgrounds, and that 
many of the children at first are utterly unable to take 
part in the games requiring co-operation. Unless the 
most careful supervision is given, the older children 
push the younger ones aside from the swings and keep 
possession for an unlimited time. 

Expert supervision of the playground is necessary 
not only to preserve order and to protect the younger 
children from the imposition of the older, but to teach 
the children how to play. Many children are almost 
wholly without initiative. Others, while possessed of 
strong initiative and energy, are ignorant of all except 
the most crude and rough games. The successful direc- 
tion of playgrounds probably calls, therefore, for as 
much skill and knowledge of children as any other form 
of educational work. 

The so-called play-centres are very similar in equip- 
ment and administration to the playgrounds, the main 



192 School Management 

distinction being that the play-centres are open in the 
evening instead of during the daytime. The forms of 
activity are, accordingly, more restrained than those of 
the playgrounds, and there is often a place set apart 
for reading and quiet games. 

A noteworthy feature of the recreation centres con- 
trolled by the school department of New York City is 
the recreation piers. These piers are built as upper 
decks of a number of the regular commercial docks be- 
longing to the city. These upper floors offer cool and 
attractive retreats from the sultry streets in summer. 
They are open both day and evening under appropriate 
supervision. Bands of music add to the attractiveness 
of these centres during the summer evenings. 

The directors of playgrounds and play-centres almost 
uniformly agree in reporting that the danger of ex- 
treme unruliness and of wanton destruction of property 
is very slight, and that the assistance of the police is 
rarely needed. The same spirit that commonly shows 
itself in the riotous proceedings of street gangs finds 
expression, when opportunity is given, in athletic teams 
and other wholesome forms of co-operation. 

5. — Beasons for Vacation Schools, 

Vacation schools, like the playgrounds, owe their 
origin to an interest not primarily educational in the 
narrow sense, but social and philanthropic. The schools 
grew out of a desire to provide, for the older children 
especially, some form of activity that should give zest 
and pleasure to the vacation months, and, at the same 
time, yield results more distinctly educative than the 
playgrounds were thought to do, 



School Gardens and Playgrounds 193 



6. — Aims. 

With but few exceptions, the movement for vacation 
schools in almost all of the large cities of the United 
States has been inaugurated by women's clubs and fed- 
erations. In almost every case, too, the desire has been 
to maintain the schools as object-lessons until the de- 
partment of public education could be induced to take 
up the work as a regular part of its system. In several 
cities — notably in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia — 
this desire of the originators has been fully realized. 
In other cities, as in Chicago and Pittsburg, the use at 
least of the public-school equipment has been obtained, 
though the direct responsibility for the work of the 
vacation schools remains with the women's clubs. 

1.— Methods. 

The same general plan of work has been followed by 
all of these schools. Briefly stated, the plan excludes 
the use of books and provides for a maximum amount 
of hand-work, for direct observation of objects studied, 
and for numerous excursions, or, more briefly still, the 
plan is to provide all opportunity for seeing and doing. 

Among the forms of activity most frequently found 
in the schools are whittling, paper-folding, and card- 
board construction; drawing, painting, and designing; 
singing, marching, and gymnastics ; chair caning, bas- 
ketry, bench work, fret-sawing, and Venetian iron- work ; 
sewing, cooking, weaving, embroidery, crocheting, mil- 
linery, and dress-making. Excursions to parks and coun- 
try are made the occasion for direct observation and 



194 School Management 

study of nature and for spontaneous and unobstructed 
play in the open air. In some cities these excursions 
have been made the correlating centre for almost all of 
the work of the vacation schools. In others the excur- 
sions have been regarded as pleasure trips without much 
direct bearing upon the educational activity of the 
schools. In most cases, however, the excursions have 
been a happy combination of serious study and invig- 
orating outing. 

The details of organization and of administration re- 
quire as careful attention in vacation schools as in the 
traditional schools of the regular session. The experi- 
ment of conducting the schools without a corps of ad- 
ministrative officers, depending upon a head teacher in 
each school to perform the duties of principal, has been 
tried. Where the number and size of the schools have 
been large, such experiments have not been successful. 
Most of the problems that arise in the administration 
of other schools are found here, and, in addition to 
these, special problems due to the fact that this work 
is still in the early experimental stage. 

Probably in no other field of public education has 
there been a more conscious attempt to adapt the w^ork 
of the school to the practical requirements of specific 
social conditions than in the vacation-school move- 
ment. Here the school has ignored its own traditions, 
has surmounted its natural conservativism, and has 
sought to understand the needs of an important part of 
the community and to adapt itself to the single purpose 
of supplying those needs. 

The explanation of the unusual directness and freedom 
of adaptation to social demands is not hard to find. In 



School Gardens and Playgrounds 195 

the first place, the fact that the schools were to be held 
during vacation time, when recreation was presumably a 
controlling motive, suggested that the work should be 
different in character from that of the common school. 
The influence of the traditional school being thus neu- 
tralized, the vacation school was free to consider prima- 
rily the requirements of the social groups from which 
the pupils were drawn. In the second place, the lead- 
ers in the movement for vacation schools were persons 
not directly engaged in school work, whose main inter- 
est and sympathy centred in problems of social well- 
being. Third, the opening of vacation schools, as has 
abeady been pointed out, was originally conceived not 
as an educational movement, strictly speaking, at all, 
but as a means of social betterment. Even if the 
leaders had come from the ranks of professional educa- 
tors, therefore, there would have been reason to expect 
that the chief consideration would be given to social 
needs rather than to educational traditions. 

8. — Results, 

There are two conspicuous results of the experiments 
in vacation schools that have an important relation not 
only to the future development of this field of work it- 
self, but to the solution of some of the pressing problems 
of general education. First, the commanding place given 
to constructive activity suggests the relatively small use 
that is made in the common schools of one of the 
strongest impulses native to children. It may be that 
this kind of activity has been over-emphasized in the va- 
cation schools ; but this very emphasis has developed 



196 School Management 

many possibilities in such work not previously realized, 
and has thus opened the way to a much wider outlet for 
children's motor impulses than has heretofore been util- 
ized. The strong hold that constructive work has upon 
the interest of children has been strikingly illustrated ; 
for though attendance upon the vacation schools is 
purely voluntary, the children have been eager to be 
present and to follow the work to the end. The prog- 
ress made by the children is frequently described as 
" remarkable " or " incredible," and, judging from the 
reports of teachers and supervisors, the difficulties of 
discipline apparently do not exist in any appreciable 
degree. 

Second, the value and the practicability of school ex- 
cursions have been illustrated and confirmed. Groups 
of children varying in numbers from twenty to two 
thousand have been repeatedly taken on excursions 
without serious accident. The educational value of 
excursions has long been recognized and widely util- 
ized in European countries. It is not unlikely that 
in this country the vacation schools will bring vividly 
before teachers the valuable possibilities of this neg- 
lected means of instruction. We may say, then, that 
the vacation schools so far have not only succeeded amply 
in their immediate purpose, but that they are giving 
impulse in important directions to the general educa- 
tional movement. 



School Gardens and Playgrounds 197 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

X. The school garden as an ideal form of nature study. 

2. What opportunities does the school garden furnish for physical 
and manual training ? 

3. Its relative value in city and country. 

4. The advantages of directed play. 

5. Should swimming be taught at public expense ? 

6. How may the vacation school supplement and strengthen the 
day-school ? 

7. How may it aid and elevate the home ? 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 

The school no longer stands apart from ot^er forms 
of community life. The schoolmaster is no longer iso- 
lated. His interests and work must be of the broadest 
nature, and the school must be closely allied to every 
form of effort which is applied for the enlightenment 
and betterment of the people. 

The change from the conception that the school has 
a definite and restricted work to do in training to the 
use of certain school arts and in giving the elements of 
knowledge, to the new idea that the school has social 
functions, that it is to be a fountain of inspiration to 
all thinking and all work, that it is interested not only 
in the child during his school life, but in the adult who 
toils and makes sacrifices that his child may remain in 
school, has been as gradual as it has been positive. It 
would be possible to explain how this change has 
come about, but the object here is to make practical 
suggestions in view of conditions as they are, rather 
than to explain all the causes which have made the 
present situation what it is. It is obvious that in this 
country the aim is to make all people as intelligent, as 
upright, as industrious, and as law-abiding as possible. 
It is manifest also that a very large majority of men and 
women are forced out of school at an early age into 

198 



The School and the Community 199 

pursuits which are more or less monotonous, and which 
have in themselves very limited opportunities for de- 
velopment. To offset this discouraging aspect of human 
society as it is to-day, we see a variety of forces, educa- 
tive and cultural, growing up in our communities, which 
are capable of wielding a mighty influence for the intel- 
lectual and moral good of the people if given proper 
leadership. We have, therefore, two great problems 
touching the social function of the school : 

1. How may the school call to its aid, and organize 
for educational ends, the culture forces in the commu- 
nity? 

2. How may the school become a social centre ex-*- 
tending its influence and power to the adult life of the 
community, so that education becomes a life process, 
and the work of levelling up, so essential to the great- 
ness of a republic, is in full and continuous operation ? 

In this chapter let us consider what the school, 
through its officers, teachers, and active coworkers, 
may do in developing and organizing as many agencies 
as possible of an educational sort, so that latent and un- 
used talents are brought into service, so that men and 
women of education and leisure may co-operate, and 
persons of wealth may see opportunities for an unselfish 
use of their money; and finally that there may be in the 
community a unified and altruistic public spirit which 
is the finest product of our modern civilization. 

The question arises at once. What are the educational 
resources which may be summoned to the aid of the 
school? For convenience they may be divided into 
three classes: 1. Churches, homes, and libraries. 2. 
Newspapers, magazines, museums, government, indus- 



200 School Management 

try, and the drama. 3. Those latent and unseen sensi- 
bilities and aptitudes of the people which make them 
responsive and capable of being quickened into new 
life. But someone will say : "My school is in a remote 
village, or is solitary upon a New England hill, or a 
Western prairie — what can be done, then, in the way of 
enlisting culture forces ? " The reply is that the princi- 
ple back of the propositions is capable of universal appli- 
cation. There are few schools in our country that can- 
not relate themselves to nearly all of these culture 
elements, even though they are but slightly developed. 
The undertaking is difficult, but is all the more interest- 
ing and professional on that account. It is just as im- 
portant that the rural school should seek co-ordination 
with other forces as that the city school should do it, 
and throughout this whole discussion we must keep this 
thought in mind. 

Let us see now what definite, practical conclusions 
can be reached. 



1. — The School and the Church, 

Let it be assumed at the outset that the church is en- 
gaged in educative work. Religion and morality should 
go hand in hand. Whatever character is found in the 
church is the joint product of the home, the school, and 
the community life. The church adds the higher 
thought, teaches the blessedness of faith and hope, and 
gives an ideal significance to human progress and at- 
tainment. Sectarian religion has little to do with the 
more vital functions of the church's mission, so it is easy 
for the church and school to combine in spirit and pur- 



The School and the Commufiity 201 

pose without infringing upon any particular belief. All 
essential truth belongs as much to the school as it does 
to the church. Clergymen and schoolmasters should 
often consult together concerning the moral welfare of 
the young, and the best means of promoting righteous- 
ness. Such conferences will do much to dispel bigotry 
and to awaken a common consciousness of common 
needs. The results of this co-operation will be reflect- 
ed in the school, in the pulpit, and in the homes of the 
community, and will open the way for a more tolerant, 
generous, and humane feeling among the people. 

The fact that the modern church has become highly 
differentiated along educational lines, and is employing 
the methods of the class-room and the social settle- 
ment, shows that there is current a changed conception 
of pure and undefiled religion. It certainly cannot be 
difficult for the school and the church to come into alli- 
ance at the present time. If the schoolmaster or the 
clergyman is arrogant, and harbors the thought that his 
cloth can justly claim a monopoly in any field, there is 
evidence that he is belated in his progress, and is out of 
harmony with the times. Teachers need to be much in 
the church, and preachers need to be in the schools; thus 
the one will helpfully react upon the other, and many 
parallel lines of work will be found. 

2. — Tlie School and the Home. 

We have many times referred to the relations of 
teachers and parents. They are co-ordinate and com- 
plementary. The teacher should know the parents of 
his children, sympathize with them in their ambitions, 



202 School Management 

and learn from them many things that will help him 
in the school. As far as possible, home life and school 
life should be adjusted to each other, with an entire 
absence of irritation or antagonism of any sort. The 
teacher should invariably show respect for the par- 
ent, and the parent for the teacher ; thus the child may 
be expected to have increased confidence in both. Par- 
ents should be interested in what children are doing in 
school. This implies that the school should be freely 
open to parents. The teachers, on the other hand, 
should be interested in what the children are doing in 
their homes, and this means that the homes should be 
wide open to the teachers. Teachers should invite sug- 
gestions from the parents. If any work is to be under- 
taken in the way of making schools more hygienic and 
attractive, parents should be asked to serve on commit- 
tees which attempt this work. In the State of Maine an 
interesting movement has been carried on for several 
years under the general supervision of Mr. W. W. Stet- 
son, Superintendent of Public Instruction. School im- 
provement leagues have been formed, whose purpose 
has been : 1. To improve school grounds and buildings. 
2. To furnish suitable reading matter for pupils and 
people. 3. To provide works of art for school-rooms. 
There are three kinds of leagues, designated as local, 
town, and State leagues. The membership in these 
leagues has included teachers, pupils, and citizens. This 
suggests the wisdom of having parents and teachers 
work together for every good cause. Many wholesome 
features of these improvement leagues are too evident 
to need emphasis, and the results as reported are most 
gratifying. It has been a matter of general observation 



The School and the Conwiunity 203 

that where the home and the school are in harmony and 
work together there are happy results, not merely in 
scholarship, but in those moral and social qualities 
which make life worth living. 

It is in place to urge here the value of public days or 
hours when the entire school is thrown open, and 
parents and citizens are invited to be the guests of 
teachers and pupils. But the pleasure and beauty of 
these school receptions are often marred by an almost 
vicious tendency to make the exercises too formal and 
too much like a show. To give the best impression 
and accomplish the most good the school should be in its 
normal condition, and go on with its regular order of ex- 
ercises, the only difference being that the several recita- 
tions are shortened in order that something of every 
kind of school work may be shown. This prompt and 
rapid succession of reading, spelling, arithmetic, geog- 
raphy, history, physical exercises, singing, and memory 
selections is vastly more entertaining and valuable to 
parents than an artificial programme of declamations and 
songs, during which the teacher sits in the corner, and 
the people present get no adequate notion of what the 
school is doing from day to day. Kindred to the "pub- 
lic day " is the school exhibit, which may be held at the 
same time or not, as circumstances determine. Here, 
also, should be seen the natural, proper, and legitimate 
work of the school. It is more important that it should 
be an honest and typical representation than that it 
should be vast in its extent, or made up of startling and 
unusual features. Both public days and exhibits do 
more than any other means to acquaint the community 
with the aims and life of the school. They tend to 



204 School Management 

arouse the pride and loyalty of the citizens, and often 
lead to more generous appropriations for school ex- 
penses. The writer knows of several instances where 
men of wealth were so impressed with what they saw 
in the schools that they made generous contributions 
for books, works of art, and other valuable aids. School 
exhibits are also educative, as they enlist the pupils in 
many activities which develop responsibility and execu- 
tive power. 

3. — The School and the Library. 

If there is a public library the principals and teachers 
will naturally desire the fullest information as to what it 
offers, and in what way its resources can be brought into 
service as an adjunct to the school. There is the possi- 
bility of having one or more reading-rooms open to pupils 
of different grades, with the most desirable books for ref- 
erence and reading, and supervised by a school librarian, 
who is responsible not only for the way in which the books 
are used, but also for the conduct of the pupils. There is 
also the plan of having a large number of books bearing 
upon any given subject delivered at the school upon 
the order of the teacher, and kept in use until a new 
supply is required. The privilege afforded to teachers 
by most libraries of taking an entire class directly to 
the shelves, so that the members become familiar with 
the books available on that subject, and may draw them 
out for individual use, is invaluable. Many large city 
libraries have not only established branches in the 
schools, but have organized a system of distribution and 
of supplementary reading. Local conditions vary great- 



The School and the Comviunity 205 

\j, and it is important that teacliers become strongly 
imbued with the value of the library in whatever form it 
may exist, and become pioneers if necessary in working 
out devices which are most feasible. 

In case there is no town library, the school should 
have one, and however small and humble its be- 
ginnings, it will be sure to grow. Pupils and parents 
will make contributions, a school concert or public lect- 
ure will be arranged, and its proceeds devoted to the 
library. Soon the school will have a nucleus of good 
books which will be a fountain of life and inspiration 
to the older pupils. The ideal class-room library would 
be filled with books bearing directly upon the subject- 
matter of the grade, and placed upon open shelves 
within easy reach of the pupils, who would have per- 
mission to take out volumes any time when they could 
make good use of them. Pupils who have this daily 
and hourly opportunity for study and research are in 
a different class from those who are restricted to the 
required text-books. 

It is clear that all of these methods of bringing young 
people into contact with good books, and teaching them 
how to use them, are intended not merely to serve the 
young during their school life, but to establish those 
habits of reading and that taste for good literature 
which last for a lifetime, and which enable working 
people to rise above drudgery, and find solace and 
inspiration. The battle now going on for shorter 
hours and higher wages points to a larger need for 
good reading. 



206 School Management 



4. — The School and the Museum, 

Let us meet any objection that the museum is only for 
the city by the statement that in every community there 
are objects of natural and historic interest, which if 
brought together would be of immense interest to both 
young and old. It is an age of travel, and every traveller 
brings back with him articles significant of the products, 
industries, and customs of the people he has visited. An 
instance is recalled, when in a country village, a few 
years ago, some enterprising person suggested the idea 
of a temporary museum, to which all the citizens should 
be invited to contribute as a means of raising money for 
a local charity. The results were surprising. What was 
brought together presented vivid pictures of local his- 
tory long forgotten, and methods of domestic life and 
husbandry of which the younger generation knew noth- 
ing. Had the village possessed some public building in 
which a room could be devoted to a permanent loan 
collection, an historical society could have been organ- 
ized to take charge of it, and a desirable educational 
means would have been established. Let it, then, be 
assumed that in every community there ought to be a 
growing collection to which people interested in doing 
good might make contributions. There is no end of 
work which classes from the schools can do in well-or- 
ganized museums. Classes in botany find collections of 
woods, fibres, cereals ; those in zoology have the oppor- 
tunity of examining shells, birds, and animals, arranged 
to show the orders and families ; so with classes in eth- 
nology, geology, and history. Teachers should first 



The School and the Community 207 

have a somewhat familiar acquaintance with the re- 
sources of the museum, and should closely connect their 
teaching with what can be actually seen and examined. 
The American Museum of Natural History, in New 
York, and the Field Columbian Museum, in Chicago, 
are good examples of what may be done for the educa- 
tion of the people, either by the municipality or by 
public-spirited donors. 

If nothing better offers itself, the school may organize 
a small museum of its own. By entering into corre- 
spondence with other schools where climate and pro- 
ductions differ, an interesting collection may be made 
by gradual exchange. The necessary correspondence, 
labelling, and installing of exhibits may be largely car- 
ried on by pupils. 

5. — The School and the Netvspaper, 

There has been a difference of opinion about the news- 
paper and its educative province. There can be no 
doubt, however, that the school needs the support of the 
public press, for no influence is more potent where intel- 
ligence and conscience are supreme. If editors and news- 
paper men can be enlisted in the service of the schools 
there will be found no more valuable allies than they. 
More and more the newspaper in its tone, spirit, and 
matter will be such as to make it admissible to the school- 
room. No history is more important than present history. 
No world movements are greater or more full of instruc- 
tion than those of the present time. The good newspaper 
reflects the world's life and activity in its manifold forms, 
and if read along with other text-books adds immense 



208 School Management 

interest and makes teaching real. The fact that some 
newspapers are bad and unfit to be thus used only 
argues that the young should be made acquainted with 
the best papers and should be taught to use them in 
the right way. 

6. — The School and Industry. 

There has been a decided awakening in this direction 
of late. It is now thought as proper to take a class to a 
saw-mill, a stone quarry, a cotton factory, or a foundry as 
to a laboratory or a recitation-room. The industries of 
the neighborhood become standards by which the world's 
work of various sorts is estimated and judged. Every 
community has its peculiar economic problems growing 
out of its natural resources, means of transportation, 
climate, soil, etc., which make it possible to carry on an 
intensive and typical line of study. Professor R. P. 
Halleck gives a concrete instance of the w^ay in which 
social economic power may be developed by the study 
of the more common industries. 

" A boy was asked how many horseshoe nails a black- 
smith would need in the course of a year. The only de- 
tails furnished were that this blacksmith was the only 
one in a little town of three hundred, and that he drew 
his custom from that and from an agricultural district 
of four square miles. The boy took an imaginary town 
and determined the probable occupation of every one of 
the inhabitants. Next he plotted on paper the four 
square miles, fixing the woods, hills, and streams, the 
farm acreage, the kind of crops raised, the number of 
horses needed. Then he talked with blacksmiths, and 



The School and the Community 209 

found that they were human. He blew the bellows, 
listened to the merry anvil chorus, stroked the noses 
of the horses, and found that they liked sympathy. He 
was a surprised boy to learn that if he worked up his 
own arithmetical problems, they had something to do 
with real practical human life." * 

The late Colonel Parker was a strong advocate of the 
same idea, and believed not only that agriculture should 
be brought into the schools of both city and country, 
but that the farmer and teacher should work together. 
He said : 

" The tremendous advantage of a rational course of 
work in country schools is that it would make a strong, 
binding union of the home and the school, the farm 
methods and the school methods. It would bring the 
farm into the school, and project the school into the 
farm. It would give parent and teacher one motive, in 
the carrying out of which both could heartily join. 
The parent would appreciate and judge fairly the work 
of the school, the teacher would honor, dignify, and ele- 
vate the work of the farm. Farmer and housewife 
would be ready to discuss the methods of the farm and 
housekeeping in the school. Children, parents, and 
teacher could meet at stated periods and hold discus- 
sions in the direction of their highest interests. One of 
the best meetings I ever attended was a union of grang- 
ers and teachers in Oceana County, Michigan. One hour 
was devoted to a discussion of how to raise potatoes, 
and the next was given to the education of childi'en." f 

* Proceedings of the National Education Association, 1901. 
t "The Farm as a Centre of Interest." Report of Committee of 
Twelve, 1895. 



210 School Management 

Dr. David Eugene Smith, of the Teachers College, 
New York City, has shown how arithmetic, which has 
been the most unsocial and unrelated of all subjects, may 
be used to arouse the child's interest in the quantitative 
side of practical life. His thought as stated is as follows : 

" The problems of present arithmetic might well be 
of two kinds : First, those dealing with the quantitative 
side of matters of local interest, as to the cost of blast- 
ing rock for a cellar in New York City, the quantity 
and cost of a mile of asphalt pavement in Buffalo, the 
quantity of water necessary for irrigating for a season an 
acre of land in Colorado, and the cost and the quantity of 
materials necessary for fattening a herd of twenty-five 
cattle on an Ohio farm ; second, those dealing with the 
quantitative side of matters of general interest, as the 
Pennsylvania Kailroad system, an ocean steamship, the 
comparative cost of the transportation of ore from Lake 
Superior to Pittsburg by rail and by water, the amount 
of freight carried on the Mississippi compared with that 
carried by the Illinois Central Railroad which parallels 
it, a great department store, the labor and money saved 
by the cotton-gin and by other inventions concerning 
cotton productions, the sugar-cane and beet-sugar in- 
dustries compared, and dairying and ranching. Since 
nearly all the arithmetical processes are mastered by the 
end of the fifth year at school, the last three years of 
mathematics in the grades might be spent almost en- 
tirely in the study of important industries and other 
matters on the quantitative side, as mining, banking, 
investments, manufacture of clothing, government rev- 
enue, commission business, gardening and farming, the 
cost of paving, of water, and of gas in different cities, 



The School and the Community 211 

the comparative cost of gas and electric light, compari- 
son of the steel industry in this country and in Eng- 
land, or the comparison of the growth of certain cities 
here and abroad." * 



7. — The School and Government, 

This part of the subject can be disposed of quickly. 
The means by which we are governed are ever in opera- 
tion, and the young should be taught to follow with in- 
terest all kinds of public work and service which is done 
by State, county, town, or city. The town meeting, court 
of common council, the work performed by the depart- 
ment of roads, the police, lights, sanitation, and justice 
should receive enough attention to make the child 
familiar with their workings and fully conscious of his 
relationship to them. 

Wholesome respect for the authority of the state is in 
itself an educative influence. Sound patriotism is based 
upon it, and the words " our country" mean little with- 
out an appreciation of that system of law and order 
which ensures safety, security, and peace to the citizen. 

It is seen that the school is planted in the midst of 
other strong educative forces. By reason of its intrinsic 
nature and scope it should be a leader and a sort of 
unifying influence in the community. As it allies itself 
to the church, the library, the museum, and other means 
of culture it multiplies its own strength, and establishes 
a fraternity of moral influences which gives character 
and tone to the entire neighborhood. 

* Teachers College Record^ March, 1903. 



212 School Management 



TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Why should the school combine with other forces? 

2. Such combinations everywhere possible. 

3. New activities of the church and their significance. 

4. How home and school may work together. 

5. Means of interesting parents and citizens. 

6. The benefits and dangers of the reading habit. 

7. The uses of the newspaper in the school-room. 

8. Educative lessons from industries. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 

Dr. Dewey * names four specific elements which bear 
upon the school as a social centre. 

1. The efficiency and ease with which people are 
brought together through transportation, cheap litera- 
ture, and centralized industry. 

2. The weakening of the bonds of social discipline 
and control as represented by the home, the church, 
custom, and tradition. 

3. Education is much more closely identified with 
life. All people are at school because all science and 
all industry are closely connected, and what we call 
practical life is replete with lessons and experiences 
which tend to educate. 

4. Change and progress are so rapid that education 
for all who intend to be successful must be continuous. 

Doubtless the most fruitful suggestions in regard to 
the propriety of opening school-houses, and making 
them meeting-places for the people, were prompted by 
the successful work of social settlements. This form of 
work, which started as a philanthropy, has taken on 
many educative phases, until the best organized social 
settlements are quasi-schools for the people. They 

* "The School as a Social Centre." Proceedings of the National 
Education Association, 1902, pago 873. 

213 



214 School Management 

teach those arts which minister to household comfort 
and thrift, and arouse an interest in good books and 
pictures. Thus the homes are reached, and life is made 
more tolerable for those who are otherwise miserable 
and wretched. 

Moreover, the element of recreation and entertain- 
ment has been prominent in all settlement work, so that 
there has been something to enjoy, and the days of hard 
toil have been brightened by music, dramatic entertain- 
ments, and interesting lectures. Games and sports have 
also been provided. Thus social settlements have be- 
come centres of life and light in the neighborhood, and 
in a simple, natural, and constructive way homes have 
been improved and a higher order of neighborly inter- 
course has been promoted. 

The public school is not a social settlement, and can 
never fulfil the functions of one. It would not be wise 
for school officials and teachers to press this idea so far 
as to divert school funds from their legitimate purpose, 
or to amplify school expenses on the social side to such 
an extent as to create a popular reaction in the minds 
of heavy taxpayers. 

The Speyer School of the Teachers College, New York, 
now housed in a new five-story building, is the first at- 
tempt to illustrate how the purposes of the school and 
the social settlement can be combined. This building 
contains two reading-rooms, one for children and one 
for adults, on either side of the main entrance. These 
are open day and evening, and are under the super- 
vision of a competent person, who assists the readers in 
finding such books and magazines as may be most help- 
ful to them. 



i 



The School as a Social Centre 215 

On the first floor iu the rear is a large kindergarten 
room, which not only receives the young children of the 
neighborhood during the day, but serves as a meeting- 
place for the Mothers' Club, which is a popular and 
useful feature. The basement floor and the rear yard 
provide a spacious gymnasium, which is open at all 
hours of the day and evening for school-children, for 
young women, and young men respectively. On the 
same floor are baths and dressing-rooms. Beside the 
class-rooms, which occupy two floors, there are labora- 
tories for wood- working, domestic art and science, which 
are also in constant use. On the fifth floor is a suite 
of apartments and additional rooms for the principal 
and resident workers. The roof provides space for 
playground and garden. 

This school, if properly managed, will illustrate both 
what can be done and what cannot be done in a public 
school. It will be found that the expenses for adminis- 
tration and instruction will be large if efficient work is 
accomplished. The practical question is, under what 
circumstances and in what way can the public schools 
be kept open and be made centres of social and intellect- 
ual culture. 

1. — Uniform Practice not Desirable, 

Many experiments will be needed to work out this 
problem. Inasmuch as conditions vary in different com- 
munities, and in different portions of the same commu- 
nity, experiments will naturally be tried along quite dif- 
ferent lines. In well-to-do sections, where the home life 
is ideal, or nearly so, it would be absurd to open the 



216 School Management 

school-houses for adults, except in the case of parents* 
meetings and education societies, to which reference 
will be made later. There should be, however, evening 
classes for young men and young women whose school 
training has been limited or who need special instruc- 
tion for the sake of their vocation. 

On the other hand, in the slum sections of our cities 
the settlement idea ought to be quite fully developed in 
the school. Special arrangements should be made for 
janitor service, directors, and teachers who would be 
present on certain evenings of the week, and possibly a 
certain portion of Sunday, for the supervision of classes 
and clubs, and the physical, moral, intellectual, and in- 
dustrial activities which are most needed. Here is cer- 
tainly a rich opportunity for levelling up people by 
means of a more systematic and complete use of the 
school plant. 

Between these extremes of social condition, the sev- 
eral school neighborhoods of town or city will present 
various conditions and needs requiring wise adaptation 
and adjustment. 

2. — The Principle of School Extension. 

The idea underlying all these new forms of educa- 
tional work is so sound and vital that it is likely to 
make headway rapidly. It is the office of educators to 
work out the plan tentatively, and to keep the public so 
well informed as to its motives and methods that there 
may be no set-back. The idea that education is a life 
process, and must therefore be continuous, commends 
itself to every open-minded person, and there is abroad 



The ScJiool as a Social Centre 217 

to-day enough of altruism, sentiment, and feeling to sus- 
tain school authorities in all reasonable attempts to 
make school property and equipment more serviceable 
to the people at large. 

3. — Free Lectures. 

New York City has given a fine object-lesson to the 
world of the value of the popular lecture as a form of 
school extension. There are in every community men 
and women who have something of interest to commu- 
nicate. Professional men, manufacturers, journalists, 
artists, and travellers are glad to prepare one or more 
lectures and repeat them at different centres without 
compensation. They only need to be asked and to be 
properly impressed with the value of the service they 
are rendering. There is an enormous amount of talent 
going to waste, that might be used in this way. As far 
as possible these lectures should be given in the school- 
houses. They should be of a popular character, they 
should be opened to adults as well as to all the older 
children of the schools. In some cases they may be 
correlated with the studies of the older classes. The 
work of organizing the lectures, advertising, etc., could be 
undertaken by volunteer committees, aided and directed 
by the teachers. In this way the sole expense would 
be for the lighting of the school-houses and advertising. 
No school-board would hesitate to give this amount 
of financial support. It is better to inaugurate the plan 
of opening the school-houses to the people by means of 
lectures, concerts, and evening classes, and let other 
more strictly social and recreative features make head- 



218 School Management 

way gradually according as public sentiment is ready 
to approve and sustain them. 

4. — Playgrounds, 

The proposition to open playgrounds at proper hours, 
not only for the use of pupils, but for other young people 
of the neighborhood, is only reasonable and just, and is 
bound to be universally accepted. In a former chapter 
we have shown how school-committees and city govern- 
ments may exercise wise foresight in anticipating the 
future growth of the city by securing ample tracts of 
land for school- sites and playgrounds. 

5. — Parents' Associations. 

Another legitimate form of community organization 
which naturally requires the use of the school-house is 
the parents' association. By this we mean something 
more than the sporadic mothers' meeting or parents' 
meeting, which simply furnishes the opportunity for 
the kindergartner, the teacher, or the principal to in- 
struct parents concerning the ideals and methods of the 
school and through a better acquaintance to secure co- 
operation. 

The parents' association in its best form has a sim- 
ple organization and is managed by committees, whose 
membership contains both teachers and parents. Eeg- 
ular meetings are held when educational questions are 
discussed. In these discussions there should be the 
fullest opportunity for opinions and even criticism 
upon existing methods. Nothing is better than frank 
statement, for it often happens that misapprehensions 



The School as a Social Centre 219 

can be removed and parents who have been sceptical 
can be made enthusiastic supporters of the new educa- 
tion. 

Occasionally the children should be permitted to 
come with their parents, and should render some pro- 
gramme, literary or musical, which they themselves have 
arranged. The social hour which concludes such an 
evening, when parents, children, and teachers mix to- 
gether in a free and friendly manner, is its rarest 
feature. 

6. — Education Societies. 

This type of organization distinctly favors the idea 
of the school as a centre of social and intellectual effort. 
It is broader than the ordinary parents' association, as 
it assumes that education is the great fundamental inter- 
est of mankind and that all citizens may be brought 
into some kind of co-operation for the sake of elevating 
community life. There might be successful education 
societies in every town and city in the country, pro- 
vided educators had faith in the outcome and courage 
to embark in such an enterprise. The writer does not 
know of a single instance of failure, except where the 
school o£Scers and teachers who should have been most 
earnest and energetic have been conspicuous for their 
timidity and apathy. It would seem unwise to ask a 
community to lay an additional tax for the carrying on 
of educational and social work out of school hours when 
educational sentiment is at such a low ebb that there is 
neither cohesion nor co-operation. It is recalled that 
in one or two cases where attempts have been made to 



220 School Management 

organize an education society, tlie representatives of 
the schools were frightened and helped to kill the proj- 
ect because of an evident tendency manifested at the 
initial meeting to criticise existing methods. 

A little effort and tact would have led the society 
into such rich and promising fields of influence and 
work that there would have been little time or disposi- 
tion to interfere with details. Experience in the forma- 
tion of education societies has taught several things. 

1. The ideals of general education in their broader 
sense are so commanding that the best men and women 
may be enlisted and leadership may to a great degree 
be transferred from the school to persons of social 
and intelligent prominence. Educators may suggest, 
advise, and work, but there are others who if given 
prominent positions in the society can make it most 
effective for good. 

2. The society should be democratic, the annual fees 
very moderate, and the regular meetings should not be 
so frequent as to impose heavy burdens. Eour or five 
meetings each year have been found sufficient to give 
character and strength to the work. 

3. There should be selected for each regular meeting 
some broad, fruitful subject which directs attention not 
so much to the school, its defects and excellences, as to 
those phases of education outside, some of which we 
have discussed in the preceding chapter. 

A society recently formed in New York City, called 
" The Bound Table," has announced the following as 
some of the subjects worth discussing in the near 
future : " Ethical Life in School and College," " The 
Proper End of Education in a Democracy," "Art as an 



The School as a Social Centre 221 

Educational Influence and Discipline," " The Kelation 
of Formal Education to Success in Life," " What May 
the School Expect from the Home," " The Old-fash- 
ioned Parent and the New-fashioned Education," 
" Education According to Social Grade and Expecta- 
tion," " The Use and Abuse of Psychology for Teach- 
ers," "What Knowledge is of Most Worth?" "The 
Problem of the Well-to-do Boy," " The Ideal Use of 
Libraries by the People," " Educational Lessons from 
Our Keformatories," "The Contribution of Pedagogy to 
the Teacher's Profession," "Existing Agencies for the 
Education of the People," " Civics-Teaching for Young 
People," " Literature for Young People," "The UtiH- 
zation of the Summer Vacation in the Educational 
Scheme." 

While the discussion should be opened by one or 
two very competent persons, there should always be 
the fullest opportunity for the members to participate. 
Persons thus taking part may be profitably limited to 
five minutes, and they should not be permitted to wan- 
der far from the question in hand. 

4. A social hour should follow the discussion, and 
every effort should be made to promote acquaintance 
and good-fellowship. It has happened in several in- 
stances that the education society has furnished the 
sole opportunity for clergyman, lawyer, doctor, business 
man, and teacher to meet on common ground, with no 
distinctions of creed or profession. 

5. The society should appoint committees to carry 
on various lines of educational work, whose membership 
is made up of men and women especially fitted for the 
department to which they are assigned. Some of the 



222 School Management 

objects to which committees may devote themselves are 
child study, art, music, science, physical training, school 
libraries, portfolio and home hygiene. Each sub-com- 
mittee should report at the annual meeting of the society 
upon its activities for the year. The executive commit- 
tee, including the officers of the society, should arrange 
for the regular meetings, and should see that the sub- 
committees are encouraged to do the work assigned 
them. 

It has been found that under the right leadership 
men and women take up this work with enthusiasm. In- 
directly the work of the teacher is dignified and made 
more interesting, social barriers are removed, and a 
more democratic and wholesome spirit pervades the 
entire community. The chief objects of the education 
society may be summarized as follows : 

1. To develop unity and co-operation in the institu- 
tional life of the community. 

2. To promote a broader knowledge of the science of 
education and a better understanding of school methods. 

3. To bring teachers and parents together, and thus 
to unite the school and the home. 

4. To strengthen and improve such culture forces as 
music, the fine arts, the drama, the library, and ath- 
letics, so that the thousands who are enslaved a good 
part of each day to monotonous and deadening toil may 
fill their leisure hours with stimulating and uplifting 
occupation. 

5. To lift the schools out of politics, not by sporadic, 
oratorical appeals, but by a rational and sustained effort 
through which voters may become committed to what is 
true and unselfish. 



The School as a Social Centre 223 



7. — School Decoration. 

It is hardly necessary to go deeply into this subject. 
Art teaching in the schools has done much to form 
the taste of the younger generation, and teachers can 
usually call to their assistance persons of culture and 
art intelligence to aid in beautifying school-rooms. 
There can be no question that beautiful coloring and 
artistic arrangement help to make the environment 
more refining and impart ideas of good taste to children. 
Where it is possible to place in the corridors and school- 
rooms copies of the masterpieces in painting and sculp- 
ture, the school becomes still more attractive and in- 
spiring. It is surprising how easy it has been to secure 
donations of money for this purpose. Where parents' 
associations and education societies have existed the 
best results have been secured. 

Too little attempt has been made to correlate pictures 
and casts with the subject-matter of the grade in which 
they are placed or with the age and advancement of the 
pupils. This is an interesting field and invites pains- 
taking study and care. In a few cases in school-rooms 
pursuing American history the subjects are connected 
with the grade work. In another instance Great Britain 
is well represented and the pictures are related to the 
English history. 

Works of art will naturally be somewhat above the 
plane of the pupil's thought and imagination, but he 
will grow toward them year by year as he is brought 
under their influence, and they will have a place in his 
thought, his dreams, and his quiet hours of meditation. 



224 School Management 

A few good examples of art well framed and placed are 
far better than a promiscuous collection of cheaper 
pictures. It is bad form to have too many scraps, draw- 
ings, clippings, and bric-a-brac exposed upon the walls. 
Too many homes present the appearance of a junk-shop 
rather than a place controlled by good taste and artistic 
arrangement. The school should set a high standard in 
this respect, and combine with exquisite cleanliness and 
neatness such choice artistic adornment as will defy 
criticism. 

It might at first appear that this subject of school 
decoration is out of place in our thought of a school as 
a social centre, but in reality it will be found to perform 
the function of both cause and effect. The more attrac- 
tive our school-houses are made the more readiness 
there will be to open them to the people, and the more 
homelike and attractive they will appear. On the other 
hand, the greater the sense of proprietorship the people 
have in the school as a meeting-place where they may 
cultivate the higher nature and find recreation and 
stimulus, the more eager they will be to sustain the 
school authorities in making the school-house and its 
surroundings a true educational home for young and 
old. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

I. What conditions in city life call for the open school-house ? 

a. Methods of organizing classes for adults. 

3. The justification of school extension at public expense. 

4. Pedagogy for parents. 

5. What educational ideals are attractive to nearly all people ? 

6. Importance of keeping out bad pictures. 

7. The unconscious influence of good pictures. 



CHAPTER XVin 

AFFILIATED INTERESTS 

We have already seen how the school has extended 
its boundaries in many directions. We have seen also 
that the principle of self -activity leads us to loosen the 
bonds of formal discipline and throw an increasing 
responsibility u]3on the student. With the growth of 
the broader view of the school which makes individual 
self-control and social adaptation instead of mere knowl- 
edge the chief aim, there have grown up various affili- 
ated activities. These offer such an opportunity for the 
training of the body, mind, and spirit together, and 
are so productive of manly and womanly qualities that 
they cannot be omitted from a treatise on school man- 
agement. It is unnecessary to make an argument to 
prove that athletic, literary, and musical clubs are a 
natural and proper part of the school life, for they 
express not merely a spontaneous and healthy desire 
and tendency of the young in their mental and moral 
growth, but also a distinct need of education on the 
social side. Let us consider, in some detail, the spe- 
cial functions which each of these forms of supple- 
mentary work is fitted to j^erform. 

225 



226 School Management 

1. — Athletics. 

Under this head may be included organized games 
and sports, such as foot-ball, base-ball, and basket-ball, 
as have become almost universal. With these also must 
be included those athletic games which develop individ- 
ual students in running, vaulting, throwing, etc. These 
games and sports, which had their first development in 
our colleges, have made their way downward through the 
several grades of high and grammar schools, and are so 
impressive and captivating to the younger children that 
even the primary pupils have their nines and teams. 
School-officers and observers give large credit to these 
various forms of activity, not only for what they do for 
physical health, but for their value in developing the 
higher qualities of self-denial, obedience, loyalty, and 
sportsmanlike generosity. Young people in the adoles- 
cent stage possess an exuberance of energy, which if 
not utilized often oversteps the bounds of reason and 
control, and makes trouble for the offender as well as 
for others. Dr. Luther Gulick has shown that the 
most popular forms of athletics are accompanied by an 
interest which gives them a higher place in education 
than any formal and systematic scheme of gymnastics. 
In other words, modern sports are vitally connected with 
the old psychic interests of the race, and are therefore 
valuable because they satisfy an old and natural apti- 
tude. His conclusions are : 

" 1. There are relations between certain muscular 
contractions with definite emotional states, as well as 
the converse. 

^' 2. That we inherit, also, tendencies toward other 



Affiliated Interests 227 

muscular co-ordinations that have been of great racial 
utility. 

" 3. That both these co-ordinations of muscle are ac- 
quired by the individual with great ease and joy. 

" 4. That these racially old co-ordinations are basal in 
neural, rational, and moral development. 

'* 5. That athletic sports and games are chiefly com- 
posed of racially old elements. 

" 6. Hence, physical training should pay great atten- 
tion to phylogenetic muscular history, and chiefly em- 
phasize racially old co-ordinations and interests." "^ 

It is evident that school authorities cannot entirely 
surrender the care and direction of athletics to the 
school body. There are several things to be kept con- 
stantly in mind : 

1. The problem should receive broad treatment. 
The best possible provision should be made for play- 
grounds, both for girls and boys, and an indoor gymna- 
sium which can be used for basket-ball and other sports 
during the winter. 

2. The organization and control of the various ath- 
letic interests should be lodged as fully as possible in 
the hands of the students, but the teaching force should 
be represented in the management, and should control 
absolutely the times and places for training ; competi- 
tive games with outside teams, in respect to when and 
where, and how many ; the making of such rules as will 
prohibit those who are negligent in their other school 
duties from playing on the several teams ; and the 
methods of raising and spending money. 

3. Athletics should be more highly differentiated. 

* American Physical Education Review^ June, 1892, page 65. 



228 School Management 

This is a pressing need. Provision should be made for 
the girls in a playground that is properly screened 
from the public by fences or hedges, so that they can 
play in gymnasium suits. The ideal American game 
has not yet been invented. That will call for a much 
larger number of participants, so that the majority of the 
school will no longer have to be mere spectators. Ten 
thousand people witnessing a ball-game is inspiring, but 
the benefits seem to be restricted to the few who do the 
playing. There should either be a larger number of 
teams or the invention of a national game which calls 
for a larger number of players. 

4. The school should hold itself responsible for not 
allowing athletics to be overdone. The school physician 
or the director of physical training, or both, should 
have an active oversight of all sports and games, which 
should be regarded as a regular part of the school life, and 
not something outside of it. This seems to be the 
present tendency and is a healthy one. The more prin- 
cipals and teachers are present when practice is going 
on, and the more they give their influence to encourage 
the better features of games, the more will results ac- 
cord with that high standard to which the American 
school is committed. 

2. — Literary Societies. 

These are a legacy to our secondary and grammar 
schools from the old academies. They are not as en- 
thusiastically supported as are athletic games. This may 
be due in part to the changed curriculum, which calls for 
a larger amount of literary study and theme writing. 



Affiliated Interests 229 

But here, as in athletics, there is a field for student ac- 
tivity which in its possibilities of self-realization and 
achievement surpasses the class-room. Here also wise 
and skilful leadership is needed. 

1. The school literary society should be open to all, 
and should be democratic. In a large school there 
should be enough societies to practically absorb all the 
members. The tendency to form secret organizations in 
a school is not healthful if it interferes with the larger 
movement of which we are speaking. There can be no 
objection to a group of students meeting together for 
any purpose, social or intellectual, provided they keep 
their affairs secret. But the moment they begin to ad- 
vertise or to make any public demonstration they be- 
come unsocial and excite jealous criticism. 

2. The literary societies of the school should cover a 
wide field and give an opportunity for talent to express 
itself in a larger and freer way than is possible in the 
class-room. In some cases the society takes the form 
of a debating club. It is well to have debating as 
an incidental kind of work in a society which affords 
opportunity for original composition, declamation, short 
lectures, and music. 

No one can question the value of training young 
people to make practical use of their attainments in 
rhetoric or English, through written and oral speech. 
Teachers should be members ex officio of these societies, 
and should strive in every possible way to have them do 
those things which will be most creditable to the school 
and most helpful to its members. 



230 School Management 



3. — The School Paper. 

The publication of a weekly or monthly paper is 
quite common in our best schools. These papers show 
a wide range in the excellence of their form and 
contents. Some are too ambitious and savor some- 
what of yellow journalism. Others are too sombre and 
stilted, and suggest the formal method of the class- 
room. The school paper should be a free and natural 
development of the best ideas and thoughts of the 
whole school. It should stand midway between the 
life of the school and the world outside, and should 
reflect both as accurately as possible. Especially 
should it represent loyally and justly such news about 
the daily workings of the school as will be helpful in 
the homes as well as in the community. Brief articles 
upon the work done in music, art, manual training, 
science, and history will be of interest and value, as 
pupils who do not take these subjects will have a 
broader idea of what the school is doing. 

The board of editors should be relatively large and 
well organized into groups, so that the entire field may 
be covered without entailing too great labor upon indi- 
viduals. Teachers should not only give oversight and 
censorship, if necessary, to the paper, but should see to 
it that the business side is carried on honorably and 
efficiently, and that all obligations are promptly met. 
The papers which come from other schools, by way of 
exchanges, should be placed where they can be seen and 
read by all the pupils. 



Affiliated Interests 231 



4. — Musical Clubs. 

Schools and homes should work together in calling 
forth those tastes and inclinations, which give to many 
lives their highest significance. Love of music is partly 
natural, and partly acquired. The school should culti- 
vate music, not merely for the good of the individual 
pupil, but for its own sake. The glee club, the school 
orchestra, or mandolin club, if well sustained and 
brought to a good degree of cultivation, is a delightful 
feature, and not only affords pleasure and profit to its 
members, but has a good influence upon the whole 
school. Above all, it opens a special door of oppor- 
tunity to those who have unusual tastes and aspirations 
in that direction, and in many cases has given wings to 
genius. The school that possesses music is able on 
public occasions to express itself to its patrons and citi- 
zens in a manner that is at once pleasing and effective. 

It is not necessary to speak of the other clubs that 
have been found useful in supplementing the school. 
There are now in successful operation natural history 
clubs, historical societies, French and German clubs. 
The school should interest itself not only to foster 
these various forms of affiliated life, but should see that 
the community provides those culture opportunities 
which answer to them. For example, the members of 
the school glee club should graduate into a town choral 
society, where they may find the opportunity of study- 
ing and performing the works of the great masters. 
Those especially interested in history should find in the 
community some well-organized scheme for gathering 



232 School Management 

up and husbanding such talent. This is quite in line 
with what has been said in a previous chapter about 
invoking the aid of culture forces for the education of 
the people. 

5. — The Summer Camp, 

The summer camp is an idealized form of the vaca- 
tion schooL It has not yet reached its highest develop- 
ment. So far it has been regarded as an exclusive and 
somewhat expensive luxury, available only to the chil- 
dren of the well-to-do. It is worth considering whether 
such camps might be conducted at public expense for a 
short season, thus giving the older pupils in the gram- 
mar schools, boys especially, that unique experience 
which brings them close to nature, and permits them 
for a short time to live with their teachers, as it were, in 
a home where there is the fullest opportunity for 
mutual confidence, courtesy, self-reliance, and co-op- 
eration. This kind of contact gives the principal and 
his teachers an insight into a boy's real character and 
worth, and tends to strengthen greatly their hold and 
increase their influence. 



6. — The Alumni Association. 

If the school is to take account not merely of its 
pupils, but of all those who have been under its influ- 
ence, it will endeavor to organize its old pupils in a way 
that shall be mutually advantageous. The boy or the 
girl whose school life is over is often cast adrift. The 
home ties are not strong enough to prevent or ofiset 
the temptations of the city. The alumni association 



Ajfiliated Interests 233 

should take such active interest in the new graduates as 
to provide in a measure for their intellectual and social 
needs. There should be occasional meetings through 
the year, and an annual meeting when all the former 
pupils are gathered together, old associations are 
revived, and the hand of friendship is extended in such 
a way as to make all feel that they have fellowship 
with others, who are striving to live honestly and nobly. 
Here is the culmination of the educational ideal, to wit, 
that a higher friendship shall dominate the community 
life and make men and women willing and eager to help 
each other, knowing that the wealth, prosperity, and 
good name of the community are dependent upon a 
unified public spirit as well as upon mutual confidence 
and regard. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Why are student organizations to be encouraged ? 

2. The psychological factors in athletics. 

3. Athletics for girls. 

4. Has the modern teaching of English weakened interest in 

literary work ? 

5. How can musical interest be increased ? 

6. The true relations of the alumni to the schooL 



CHAPTER XIX 
SUPERVISION 

It is not the intention of tlie writer to go deeply into 
the question of school supervision. Many of its prob- 
lems are political and economic, and have little to do 
with the work of the school. It is proposed, however, 
in this concluding chapter to treat those relations which 
superintendents, principals, and supervisors sustain to 
each other and to teachers, and to point out some prin- 
ciples and methods which experience has shown to be 
sound. 

All that has been written in this volume may be re- 
garded as the true subject-matter of supervision. It has 
been shown that certain things need to be done, that 
teachers are to be trained continuously, that the school 
plant is to be kept in order, that the course of study, 
programme, recitations, and examinations are all to be 
constructed and carried on in a truly educative spirit, 
and that the school in its various forms of activity is to 
minister to the ideal life. However earnest and skilful 
teachers may be, there is no hope that these high aims 
will be reached unless there is one strong controlling 
mind which communicates its spirit and policy to all 
the workers, and by fine tact and efficient leadership 
draws them into partnership and co-operation. 

234 



Supervision 235 



1. — TJie Superintendent 

In the small rural school the teacher usually has the 
largest amount of freedom, and to a good degree frames 
his own policy. In a small community where all the 
children attend one graded school the guiding hand 
is usually that of the principal, who exercises in his 
relation to the school-board some of the ordinary func- 
tions of the superintendent. In the larger community 
possessing a small group of schools, or in the large city 
system, it is the superintendent who impresses himself 
upon the school-board, shapes their opinions and ac- 
tions, communicates to principals and teachers the 
general policy, and in every possible way endeavors to 
have this policy successfully carried out. 

The superintendent should have a cultivated mind, a 
fairly good knowledge of men and things, and his per- 
sonal character should be above reproach. He should 
also possess a good knowledge of the history and theory 
of education, and should have mature judgment upon 
the many practical questions with which he has to deal. 
He should rejoice in his profession, should love his 
daily work, and in every possible way should seek to 
elevate and ennoble the service which he and his asso- 
ciates are called to perform. 

2. — Need of a Definite Policy, 

Nothing is so good for a school system, or is regarded 
with more favor by the public, than a superintendent 
who has ideas for which he is willing to stand or fall ; 



236 School Management 

things in which he believes and which seem to him 
especially pertinent to the situation. Every community 
has its own local needs and peculiarities. A superin- 
tendent should be quick to recognize these. He should 
not be too stubborn nor too hasty in announcing his 
policy. It is sometimes just as well to go around a 
difficulty as to run against it. It is well, also, to gauge 
one's own rate of speed in introducing new features. It 
is much easier to make progress when the superintend- 
ent has taken the public into his confidence, and has 
given them some idea of what he would like to accom- 
plish. The columns of the local newspaper can be used 
for this purpose. Parents' meetings, public days, and 
other occasions will afford the opportunity for stating 
and restating the most important needs of the local 
schools, and thus creating an intelligent public senti- 
ment. No matter if a few array themselves in opposi- 
tion, provided there is a good healthy majority in favor 
of improvement. 

The superintendent with a policy deeply rooted in 
moral ideas, who is more highly charged with educa- 
tional and patriotic sentiment than with demands for 
large expenditure, is quite sure to carry the people with 
him. It is easier to secure appropiations for beautiful 
school-sites and fine buildings when there are high 
moral and educational motives moving the public mind 
and conscience. 

3. — Relation to the School-Board, 

The superintendent must convince the board of the 
wisdom of his policy. He will leave no stone unturned 
to bring the board to his point of view. If he cannot do 



Supervision 237 

this absolutely lie will at least establish a working basis 
and go forward hoping and believing that his poHcy will 
ultimately prevail. A modern tendency in school admin- 
istration, and one to be encouraged, is the plan of giving 
the superintendent almost entire freedom in affairs that 
are strictly educational, while the board exercises legisla- 
tive functions merely. Even where the authority is thus 
highly centralized in the superintendent, the writer be- 
lieves that the school-board should be kept as fully 
informed as possible, and should feel a sympathetic and 
approving interest in all that is done. In every instance 
where there has been a schism between superintendent 
and board the situation has become intolerable and the 
tenure of office of the superintendent has been short. 
While it is necessary in our large cities to have the 
selection of teachers, the framing of the courses of 
study, and the supervision of instruction placed in the 
hands of experts, it is necessary for the superintendent 
and his board to hold common ground and stand to- 
gether in all measures looking to progress and reform. 

4. — Relation to the Community. 

Some who have written upon school administration 
have implied that if a superintendent is elected by a 
non-partisan board for a long term and is given some- 
what independent powers, he need consult no one, and 
may be as autocratic as he pleases. There could be no 
greater fallacy. In a democratic country like ours there 
is no public official, be it the President of the United 
States, the governor of a State, a member of Congress, 
or an alderman, who is not directly responsible to the 



238 School Management 

people for his acts. The people so understand it and 
will not consent to a different understanding. A super- 
intendent of schools by endeavoring to take the appoint- 
ment of teachers out of politics and freeing the schools 
from incompetency will invariably be sustained by the 
best elements. If he attempts revolutionary measures, 
independently of the board and regardless of public 
sentiment, he is sure to reap a harvest of opposition and 
trouble. It is far better as a faithful servant of the 
community to evoke their support and aid by pointing 
out the main lines of the new policy. Showing one's 
hand has been found to work well. The public officer 
who does it is usually sustained by the press, which al- 
ways has to be reckoned with. 

5. — Belation to Principals and Teachers. 

Here, after all, the superintendent has his finest op- 
portunity. To develop unity of plan and to impart 
the spirit, at least, of his desires and aspirations to the 
whole teaching force without curtailing their freedom or 
crushing out individual initiative, requires the skilled 
tactician. That general policy to which we have re- 
ferred must be interpreted and made clear to principals 
and teachers. How important the teachers' meeting is 
for this purpose we have previously shown. If a super- 
intendent cannot call his principals into council, and 
win their confidence and loyalty, his policy and his work 
will measurably fail. He will be misquoted and misim- 
derstood in the various schools, and where there ought 
to be genuine frankness and open-handed co-operation 
there is hypocritic pretence and evasion. Some super- 



Supervision 239 

intendents never know how disloyal their teachers are 
and how distinctly traceable this condition is to the 
principals. So I say again, a superintendent must have 
a strong and closely knit body of followers in his prin- 
cipals, a body-guard, as it were, who are as loyal as if 
they had sworn to die in his defence. As he expects 
them to deal honorably and candidly with him, so he will 
be careful to do them full justice in public and in pri- 
vate, and to give them that support which they in turn 
are to give their teachers. 

Having established this relation with the principal, 
it becomes easy for the superintendent to enter the 
class-room, and to lend a hand in any work that may 
be in progress. He will take note of everything, and 
esteem nothing trivial or unimportant. His suggestions, 
and he should always be ready to make them, will fit 
into and harmonize with those of the principal, and the 
teacher will never be perplexed by the feeling that he 
has two masters to serve and two policies to carry out. 

The presence of a superintendent in a school-room 
should not cause alarm or disturbance of any sort. It 
is important that he should know what the normal life 
of the school is, and so therefore he will hesitate to in- 
terrupt or ask for a change of programme. As he has 
superior opportunities to see the best work as he goes 
from school to school, it should be one of his functions 
to disseminate these best methods and devices, and thus 
secure a high general average of school work. 

Whether a superintendent should ever conduct a reci- 
tation in the presence of the teacher is a question 
which he only can settle in the light of time, place, and 
circumstances. In nine cases out of ten he will teach 



240 School Management 

more poorly than tlie class teacher. If he realizes this 
and bases his claim for the privilege of teaching upon a 
desire to know the pupils better, no serious harm is 
likely to be done. I doubt if a superintendent is likely 
to improve instruction by undertaking to give model 
lessons. 

The vi^ise superintendent will heed what has been 
said in a former chapter about the danger of too much 
uniformity, and the value of letting each school have 
some ideals of its own which are suited to the conditions 
in which it is placed. A school in the slums may do 
just as efficient work as one located in the Back Bay of 
Boston, but it will naturally have different aims and 
will do its work in a somewhat different way. This fact 
should influence the superintendent whenever he is 
tempted to set a uniform examination or make a com- 
parison of statistics respecting attendance, tardiness, or 
results in scholarship. A school whose personnel in 
the lower grades consists largely of foreigners with 
little, if any, knowledge of English, whose homes are in 
the worst of tenement-houses, must be strongly indus- 
trial, moral, and social in its training. These children, 
who have back of them many generations of poverty and 
filth, must be taught to be clean, industrious, honest, 
and thrifty, while they are at the same time acquiring 
the use of the mother-tongue. In the Back Bay school, 
whose children come from homes of opulence, where 
good breeding and refinement are the family inheri- 
tance, the school may devote itself more unreservedly to 
scholarship. The superintendent who regards each 
school as having an individuality of its own, with 
unique opportunities and a special mission, will best 



Supervision 241 

serve the community and reflect the greatest credit upon 
his profession. Every school should be encouraged to 
make some experiments, and so there will be newness of 
life and some contribution to progress in which all may 
share. 

Finally, while the superintendent should be thor- 
oughly business-like and painstaking in all material in- 
terests of the schools, he should find a better use of his 
time than in keeping accounts and compiling statistics. 
The interests of all the children of the community are 
in his hands, including their health, moral and mental 
culture. He must be a close student and must keep 
abreast of the times in the science of education if he is 
to instruct and inspire the teaching staff. 

6. — Tlie Principal, 

No other person in the school system can do so much 
good at first hand. He can plant the seed and see it 
grow up to maturity. I have in mind at this moment 
several men who have presided over the same schools 
until children of the third generation are under their 
care. Their names are household words in every home. 
They are the best known men in the whole neighbor- 
hood, and exert more influence than any number of 
clergymen who may happen to be in those parts for a 
brief season. 

"Whether a principal be young or old, he is a privi- 
leged person. He can both teach and supervise. He 
can know the pupils and call them by name. He is a 
welcome visitor in the homes and can form many friend- 
ships good for a lifetime. He can gradually make the 



242 School Management 

school and its surroundings attractive and homelike. 
He can exert a good influence upon the young, not only 
in the school but elsewhere, and may cultiyate such 
local pride and such a love for the school as will re- 
strain his pupils from wrong-doing. 

The principal finds his greatest opportunity in guid- 
ing and supporting his teachers. They have many bur- 
dens to carry, and often suffer from bad conditions. 
Dr. Burnham, of Clark University, on the basis of a 
large number of reports from teachers, has summarized 
these conditions as follows : Poor ventilation, poor light, 
coal-gas, poor drinking water, improper heating, damp- 
ness, working by gas-light, dust, cold halls, cold floors, 
noisy streets, smoke, nearness to railroads, swamps, 
cesspools, out-houses, etc. Among the bad conditions 
incidental to instruction : Too many papers to be cor- 
rected, visitors, overwork, too large classes, no rest, long 
periods and sessions, heavy responsibilities, nervous 
strain, quantitative requirements, too much supervision 
by superintendents. The principal must be conscious 
of all these evils and must use his utmost skill in over- 
coming them. He must help his teachers by sympathiz- 
ing with them, by sharing their burdens, and by giving 
them every possible encouragement. 

The natural tendency which people have to organize 
on a uniform pattern may be carried to excess by the 
principal as well as by the superintendent. Some por- 
tions of a garden will produce more than some other 
portions. The office of the gardener is to have every 
plant attain the best growth possible under the circum- 
stances. Variety is good in the school. It is well for 
the pupil in passing from grade to grade to find some- 



Supervision 243 

thing new and interesting which he has not met with 
before. Thus individual teachers are to be encouraged 
by the principal to be fresh and original in their 
methods, so that every school-room has something 
unique compelling the interest and admiration of the 
visitor. The school is much less formal than it has 
been, and the value placed upon motor training calls for 
great ingenuity in devising hand-work through which 
the child can express himself and gain knowledge and 
experience concerning things and processes. In fur- 
thering this newer development the principal has a field 
of endless opportunity. He is no longer a court of 
justice or a dispenser of discipline, but rather a director 
of enterprises and industries. The three K's, instead of 
becoming less important, have become more so, because 
they are brought into vital connection with what the 
child loves to do and think about. The principal must 
not only be in earnest in working out a newer and more 
vital education, but he must be able to explain what he 
is doing to his patrons and make them intelligent 
believers in the new regime. He must indoctrinate his 
teachers also in this gospel, so that they may be not 
merely disciples but apostles. 

Where there is no school physician the principal 
should assume this office and should know enough of 
the ordinary diseases of children to detect any suspi- 
cious symptoms and do all in his power to prevent 
contagion. Every school has its weak and backward 
pupils, and possibly some who are more or less de- 
fective. If the principal does not discover these cases 
and make some provision for their proper treatment 
they are likely to be neglected and prove an endless 



244 School Management 

source of irritation and annoyance to the teacher. 
Underneath the exterior of children there are many 
secrets which if known and understood by the principal 
would lead to more individual attention and prevent 
those unhappy conditions too often caused by ignorant 
and unjust treatment. 



7. — The Conclusion of the Whole Matter, 

It is clearly seen that the term school management 
covers a long list of functions and requirements in 
which supervising officers and teachers are equally inter- 
ested. What we had to say about supervision was 
reserved to a final chapter in order that the whole field 
might be surveyed and the teacher given his rightful 
position. If any school in city or country amounts to 
anything, it is because there is a teacher there whose 
living, working presence is felt by every pupil. Too 
little supervision is better than too much, and the great- 
est teachers the world has ever seen had no supervision 
whatever. 

The new ideals of efficiency to which reference was 
made in the first chapter presuppose a wider field of 
influence for the school. It has been shown how school 
management may operate along these new lines. Some 
will contend that the school should work more narrowly 
and intensively, but it is of little use to turn back the 
hands of progress. The new and generally received 
definitions of education call for something larger and 
better than is generally seen at present. The hygienic, 
industrial, and social obligations of the school are all 
comparatively new. The alphabet upon which their 



Supervision 245 

nomenclature is constructed has hardly yet been learned. 
Fortunately, in turning our attention to these new 
inquiries we are able to slough off and discard some 
things that were once made very prominent in school 
organization. Without being revolutionary the hope is 
entertained that these pages may tend to minimize 
organization as such, throw a stronger emphasis upon 
the scientific nurture and development of the individual 
life, and bring the school into a closer alliance with 
every movement which seeks the betterment and the 
happiness of the people. 

TOPICAL REVIEW 

1. Supervision is coextensive with all school work. 

2. What training is needed for the superintendent ? 

3. In what sense may he be co-ordinate with the school board ? 

4. Reasons for educating the people to high standards. 

5. How may superintendent and principal both supervise with- 
out causing friction? 

6. Should a principal teach classes ? 

7. In what sense have the ideals of school management under- 
gone recent changes ? 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 



OUTLINES OF LESSONS 

These outlines are intended to illustrate certain fun- 
damental principles which are presented in Chapters XI. 
and XII. on the " Eecitation." There is such richness 
of content in every lesson that interest is sure to abound, 
providing the teaching is good. Breadth of knowledge 
and fertility of device must be present or the teaching 
amounts to nothing. 

The five formal steps can be traced in each lesson, or 
series of lessons, although they are less distinctly 
marked in some than in others. It is evident that the 
teacher's preparation is a vital element. All that he 
has read and experienced, as well as the results of travel 
and reflection, enter into the teacher's outfit and make 
the daily preparation the easier. 



A HISTOEY LESSON FOR PUPILS OF THE 
HIGHEST GEADE 

subject: magka chaeta 

Aim for Teacher. — To lead the pupils to see how the 
great idea of the interdependence and well-being of all 
classes of men were demanded by Magna Charta. 

249 



250 School Management 

Pupils' Aim. — To find out the debt of the American 
Constitution to the Magna Charta. 

Preparation. — Meaning of subject words. 

Of what other charters have we ever heard ? Charters 
of William I., Henry I., and charters granted American 
colonies. 

Why is this one called '' the great" ? 

Before beginning the study of our subject, let ns have 
a summary of the chief events of the reign in which it came 
into existence. 

Summary. — John's undignified name "Lackland," 
given him by his father, was made a reality by his three 
fatal quarrels. 

First, he quarrelled with the King of France, his overlord 
refusing to come to France, and answer the charges made 
against him by the Norman barons. By this refusal he 
was declared traitor, and sentenced to forfeit all his lands 
on the Continent. His resistance availed little, for the 
war that followed deprived him of all land north of the 
Loire. 

Second, he quarrelled with Pope Innocent III., who had 
ordered a delegation of monks to elect Stephen Langton 
Archbishop of Canterbury. John refused to allow Lang- 
ton to land in England, and bore the Pope^s interdict and 
even his excommunication with scorn. 

To bring the king to terms, the Pope ordered the King 
of France to seize England's throne. Thoroughly fright- 
ened, John hurried to submit, not only receiving Stephen 
Langton, but paying 164,000 yearly to the Pope for the 
privilege of keeping his crown. 

Third, he quarrelled with his own barons, the chief men 
of influence in England. He had refused to allow the 
Church to fill its ofi&ces or enjoy its revenues. He had ex- 
torted large sums from the barons. He had compelled 



Outlines of Lessons 251 

merchants to pay large sums of money to carry on business 
in peace. He had sent to prison men on make-believe 
charges, and kept them there. He had unjustly claimed 
large sums from poor men, and had seized their carts and 
tools so they could not earn their living. 

Presentation. — Material needed • A facsimile copy 
of Magna Oharta and one of the United States Constitu- 
tion. 

A set of English histories containing Magna Charta in 
English. A set of American histories containing the 
Constitution. 

Method of Presentation.— What classes of society 
had suffered by John^s misrule ? 

Who undertook the task of reform ? 

Who was their leader ? 

Where was first meeting held ? 

What model charter did Langton there present ? 

After the king's crestfallen return from Bouvines, where 
did the second meeting take place ? 

Can you justify the result of this second meeting, viz., 
they solemnly swore before the high altar that they would 
make the king grant the new charter or they would declare 
war against him ? 

Result. — At Easter these same barons met the king at 
Oxford, and told him what they wanted. Seeing that he 
could not evade them, John said, ^'Let the day be the 15th 
of June and the place Runnymede.'' 

At that date and place did the king set his seal to 
Magna Charta. 

What was the meaning of the king's angry cry, " They 
have set five-and-twenty kings over me." 

Now let us turn to the document itself : 

How many provisions does it contain ? 

It redressed the grievances of the Church, then of the 



252 School Management 

barons and their tenants, then of citizens and tradesmen, 
then of villeins and serfs. 

Three were of tremendous importance to every man in 
the land : 

1. No freeman shall be imprisoned except by the lawful 
judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. 

2. Justice shall neither be sold, denied, nor delayed. 

3. All taxes, except the feudal dues, shall be imposed 
only by the consent of the national council. 

Comparison. — Magna Oharta is England's first great 
document of constitutional government. What is that of 
the United States ? 

When was the Constitution drawn up ? When was it 
accepted by the States ? Who were some of the signers ? 
How do the two documents compare in size ? Number 
of articles ? What articles in the Constitution deal with 
the same subjects as Magna Charta ? Under what circum- 
stances was the Constitution drawn up ? What new issues, 
not provided for in Magna Charta, did we have to meet ? 
What was exactly stated in the Constitution that was only 
implied in Magna Charta ? (Habeas corpus.) For what 
classes of society did the barons work in Magna Charta ? 
For what classes did the framers of the Constitution work ? 

Generalization. — Give a summary of the facts of 
Magna Charta, and a comparison of its provisions with 
those of the Constitution. What facts of Magna Charta 
have proved of surpassing worth to Englishmen everywhere 
for five and a half centuries ? 

Application. — Magna Charta expressed the attempt of 
men to ameliorate the lot of their fellow-beings at a 
time when the different classes of society were separated 
by almost inconceivable barriers. In our pride in our 
own land, what must we remember that we owe to Magna 
Oharta ? 



Outlines of Lessons 253 

This great human idea of brotherhood was long ago 
recognized by the law-makers in Magna Charta. 

'^ Then let ns pray, that come it may 

As come it will for a^ that. 
That sense and worth o'er a' the earth 

May bear the gree, and a' that ; 
For a' that, and a' that. 

It's coming yet for a' that 
That man to man, the warld o'er. 

Shall brothers be, for a' that." 



A LITEEATUKE LESSON EOE HIGHEE 
GEADE PUPILS 

. THE SOLITARY REAPER 

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

Behold her, single in the field, 
Yon solitary Highland Lass ! 
Eeaping and singing by herself ; 
Stop here, or gently pass ! 
Alone she cuts and binds the grain. 
And sings a melancholy strain ; 
listen ! for the Vale profound 
Is overflowing with the sound. 

No nightingale did ever chaunt 
More welcome notes to weary bands 
Of travellers in some shady haunt 
Among Arabian sands : 
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard 
In spring-time from a Cuckoo-bird, 
Breaking the silence of the seas 
Among the farthest Hebrides. 



254 School Management 

"Will no one tell me what slie sings? 
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow 
For old, unhappy, far-off things 
And battles long ago : 
Or is it some more humble lay, 
Familiar matter of to-day? 
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain. 
That has been, and may be again ? 

Whatever the theme, the maiden sang 
As if her song could have no ending ; 
I saw her singing at her work 
And o'er the sickle bending ; — 
I listened, motionless and still ; 
And, as I mounted up the hill. 
The music in my heart I bore. 
Long after it was heard no more. 

Preparation. — Aims : 1. The first aim in the teaching 
of this poem is an ethical one. It is to awaken in chil- 
dren an ideal of service through the common task (the 
reaping), and arouse the appreciation of the reaper's un- 
conscious service in inspiring the poet by the beauty of the 
air of the song. 

2. To widen the children's horizon by an interest in 
these foreign lands, viz., the lake country of England, 
Wordsworth's home ; the Highlands of Scotland, the 
reaper's home ; the far-off Hebrides ; the sandy Arabia. 

3. To increase a knowledge and love of natural objects : 
the vale, the hill, the lonely field, the nightingale, the 
cuckoo. 

4. To teach the use of beautiful words : thrilling, soli- 
tary, profound, plaintive, humble, familiar, mounted. 

5. To train the power of logical thinking, by carefully 



Outlines of Lessons 255 

questioning the poem to discover the truth, apparent and 
underlying. Also the power of discriminating apprecia- 
tion, by requiring children to answer questions in the 
words of the poem. 

6. To train the memory by learning the four stanzas by 
heart. 

Special Preparation. — Material Needed: Pictures or 
photographs of the Highlands in the region of Loch Lo- 
mond near the scene of the poem, to give pupils interest 
in the home of the reaper. 

In order that the pupils may enter into the spirit of the 
poem they must know something of the poet and his home. 
The lesson may be begun by showing to the class photo- 
graphs of the Vale of Grasmere, where Wordsworth drew 
great draughts of inspiration for his own service to men ; 
another of his home, Dove Cottage ; a bit of Lake Winde- 
mere, where the lake and its guardian hills still wear their 
beauty, as if conscious of the poet^s boyhood love. They 
should see the photograph, also, of the little Church of St. 
Oswald, and the yew-tree in the yard where sleeps the 
great interpreter of nature beside the Rotha, which still 
obeys unweariedly the charge — 

*' Sing him thy best, for few or none 
Hear thy voice right, now he is gone.'' 

Presentation. — 1. Why was the poet interested in the 

Scottish Highlands ? (Early visit there.) 

Why does he call the reaper ''Lass" ? 

In how many expressions in the first stanza does he make 
us feel the force of ^' solitary " in the title ? 

How are we made to feel the loneliness of the grain-field ? 

To whom- is the poet talking in the fourth line? What 
does it show you of his great courtesy ? 



256 School Management 

How do you feel the dignity of tlie labor of the maiden? 

Why does ^^Vale profound " mean ao much more than if 
he had said ^^deep valley ^^ ? 

2. Why does the poet compare the maiden's song to the 
nightingale's instead of to his favorite skylark ? 

What does the dignined spelling of '^^chaunt" suggest 
to you ? 

What reminds you in this second stanza that the poet is 
away from his own land ? Do you see how the loneliness of 
the song in the valley suggests the cuckoo's visit to the 
lonely Hebrides rather than to smiling, happy England ? 

The girl's work of reaping and binding the grain could be 
comprehended at sight, but the plaintive music awakened 
a questioning response in the poet's heart. Perhaps the 
maiden was singing the story of the brave skipper. Sir 
Patrick Spens, who obeyed the king's orders to sail to Nor- 
way, and whose good ship on the return voyage was splin- 
tered on Scotland's shore, with the loss of every noble 
knight and every broad piece of gold. Perhaps she re- 
membered Scotland's ill-fated battle of Culloden, where 
the Scottish heather was dyed a deeper red with the blood 
of those brave friends of bonnie Prince Charlie. 

What might have been the '^'^ natural sorrow, loss, or 
pain " ? 

Still bending over her sickle, the maiden sang the song 
in harmony with the sound of the waves on the shore of her 
native land. Her grain would add to the store of the little 
family at home. The song kindled the soul of the poet, 
and through him men catch the inspiration that service is 
beautiful. 

Generalization. — Summary of the Poem: The beauty 
of humble service. 

The song that still overflows all the world of the poet's 
readers. 



Outlines of Lessons 257 

The value of the service depends upon the spirit in 
which it is rendered. 

Application. — The maiden showed joy in her work, al- 
though her life had known sadness. This ethical lesson 
cannot be pressed home, but the children's interest in the 
poem may be deepened and they may respond to it more 
readily if the facts of the poets are wrought into a written 
paper upon an allied subject, such as — 

1. A Visit to the Cottage Home of the Solitary Reaper. 

2. Harvest Time in the Highlands, Told by a Brother of 
the Solitary Reaper. 



A SEEIES OF LESSONS IN GEOGKAPHY 

VIENNA, THE CHIEF GATE CITY OF EUEOPE 

These lessons on Vienna are planned for the first in a 
series on several European cities, to be given in the seventh 
or eighth grades to illustrate the influence of geographical 
environment, and the control of man on such environment. 
Vienna has been chosen to begin the series because of its 
striking geographical position, and because, though one of 
the oldest cities of Europe, it is to-day one of the most mod^ 
em and brilliant. 

In the study of Europe, which should precede these les- 
sons, the attention of the pupils should be called in a 
general way to some of the natural conditions leading to 
the location and growth of towns and villages. For ex- 
ample, the convergence of the Alpine passes on the north- 

* Teacher is referred for material on these lessons to Die Geo- 
graphische Lage ion Wien, by A. Penck, published by Holzel, Vienna; 
Der Boden der Stadt Wien^ by Ed. Suess ; and Baedeker's Austria. 



258 School Management 

west corner of Italy explains the location of Milan and 
Turin ; the confluence of the Moselle and the Rhine is the 
raison d'etre of Coblentz ; the fine roadstead where Plym- 
outh is located was the nearest English harbor to the 
Spanish Main, and guarded the entrance to the channel ; 
and the great bend of the Loire brought Paris nearer the 
fertile Limagne, and was the point where the roads from 
the interior provinces converged upon Paris. 

The pupils should also be led to see how natural condi- 
tions sometimes militate against the continued prosperity 
of a city. Pisa, once a seaport at the mouth of the Arno, 
now with its river choked with silt, and Bruges, formerly a 
populous city three miles from its seaport, and now stranded 
seven miles inland by the advance of the shore line, may 
be given as illustrations of cities out-distanced in their com- 
petition for trade and wealth by their more fortunate 
neighbors, and visited to-day by the traveller chiefly be- 
cause of the interest in a past life which their old streets 
and buildings excite. 

For the lessons on Vienna each pupil has an atlas con- 
taining good physical maps of Europe and its countries. 
The map of Austria contains a small inset map of the im- 
mediate environs of Vienna of which use will be made. 
On the wall is a map of the present city, with the old town 
and the newly incorporated villages marked so as to be 
easily distinguished. 

The teacher may begin the lesson by asking a child to 
name some of the natural conditions which have led to the 
settlement and growth of towns, and to use as illustrations 
the cities and towns of Europe. Then may be asked the 
reasons why such towns as Pisa, Bruges, Ravenna, etc., 
once towns of importance, should have sunk into insig- 
nificance. The class is then ready for the statement of the 
new work about to be undertaken and its purpose ; that 



Outlines of Lessons 259 

tliey are to begin this work with Vienna, a city which has 
existed upward of two thousand years; and that they are to 
endeavor to discover why it has not followed the fate of 
these languishing cities, but is to-day one of the great cap- 
itals of Europe. 

The Teaching of the Lesson. — As the key to the 
history of Vienna is its geographic position, let us study its 
locatio7i. 

Turn to the physical map of Europe and look at the great 
highland mass which stretches from the Carpathians to the 
Pyrenees. What two parts of Europe does this great wall 
separate ? Name any breaks in this wall by which people 
from the cold, cloudy North could enter the warm, sunny 
South. (Children name Ehone Valley, Alpine passes of 
the Simplon, St. Bernard, St. Gotthard, etc.) Notice 
that at Vienna the most massive part of this wall is sud- 
denly broken. With what mountains does the wall begin 
again ? Look at this broad gateway that opens in the 
mountain wall. Between what parts of Europe does it 
make intercourse easy ? What city lies here ? 

Turn now to the map of Austria and look at the roads 
which diverge from this gate. Let us take that to the 
south first. 

Trace the line where the Alps suddenly fall off into the 
Plain of Hungary. What is the direction of this line ? 
Trace it to the Adriatic. What mountains lie between the 
Plain of Hungary and the sea ? What indications do you 
find that they can be crossed with little difiiculty ? Once 
on the shores of the Adriatic, what fruitful countries of 
Europe can be easily reached ? Trace the road that ex- 
ists to-day between Vienna and Trieste. What natural 
features guide its position ? Where does it leave the 
plain and enter the highland ? Why ? This Semmering 
Pass was the first Alpine pass to be crossed by the rail- 



260 School Management 

road. It is a beautiful ride, and wonderful feats of engi- 
neering were accomplished in its construction. The old 
high-road is a favorite with bicyclists, and hundreds of 
wheelmen pour out of Vienna as soon as the schools close in 
the summer to ride through the Styrian mountains and the 
Semmering. What city in Italy is the junction for the 
lines to Trieste and Venice ? 

Look now for the broader, easier road which leads from 
Vienna to the southeast. To what great inland sea does 
this valley lead ? To what two continents does the sea 
belong ? Which part of it is Asiatic ? Tell about the size 
of the Danube and its branches between Vienna and the 
Black Sea. What influence has this broad river and its 
branches had upon the entrance of Eastern peoples into 
Europe ? Name any who came into Europe by this river 
valley. 

The Eomans early saw the importance of barring the 
gate at Vienna against their barbarian foes to the east, and 
established a camp here in the first century. Later, in the 
days of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died 
here, it became an important military outpost. After the 
decay of the Roman power, what dangers would threaten 
the people of middle Europe because of the unguarded 
gate ? In the fifth century the Huns, a fierce people from 
the steppes of central and western Asia, poured into Europe 
through this gate and well-nigh destroyed Vienna. Later, 
the city suffered fearful sieges at the hands of the Turks 
but it survived these disasters and rose each time like the 
Phoenix upon the ashes of the old city. In which general 
direction do the roads already traced lead from Vienna ? 
Which would you call a continental highway ? Turn to 
the map of Europe and examine the country north of 
Vienna. What highland abuts on the Danube from the 
north ? What influence does it have on easy communica- 



Outlines of Lessons 261 

tion between Germany and the South ? See how like a 
rampart it stands before the great gate ! What branch of 
the Danube makes an opening in this highland ? Trace 
the road along this river on the map of Austria. What 
rivers of Germany are easily reached by means of the March ? 
What does the Moravian Gate tell of the ease by which the 
divide between the Oder and the March can be crossed? 
How is the Valley of the Elbe brought into communication 
with the Danube ? 

From early times amber was brought from the shores of 
the Baltic to the people on the middle Danube and in the 
Po Valley. Point out the " amber highway/' Name the 
rivers crossed and followed and countries traversed. As 
the middle Danube formed a boundary to the Eoman Em- 
pire, there must have been considerable traffic up and down 
stream. Salt was an important commodity. Where was 
it mined? To what places distributed ? One of the oldest 
streets in Vienna is called Salzgries, salt-exchange, thus 
testifying to the importance of the traffic. 

How many lines of travel cross where Vienna stands ? 
Take an outline map, locate the city, and sketch in these 
three main highways. Mark important points on the roads. 

Look at the map of Europe again and trace the Danube 
to its source. Describe routes of travel between the Danube 
and Paris, the Danube and the Ehine countries. Is com- 
munication easy or difficult between these parts of Europe ? 
Show how the Danube plays the part of a great street be- 
tween eastern and western Europe ; between western Europe 
and the Orient ; between middle Europe and Italy. What 
part did the Danube play in the crusades ? It was at the 
castle of Diirrenstein, just west of Vienna on the Danube, 
that the faithful Blondel discovered his master, Eichard 
the Lion-hearted, who was imprisoned here on his way 
home from Jerusalem. 



262 School Management 

What a "wonderful location Vienna has at the junction 
of all these crossways ! Contrast its location with that of 
Pisa. In what ways is that of Vienna more favorable to 
the permanence of a large city. How does it compare 
with the location of Venice ? Bruges ? 

Do yon recall a city of the United States that will bear 
comparison with Vienna in its location and in the effect 
which this location has had upon its growth ? What 
similarities do yon find between Pittsburg and Vienna ? 
What river of the United States answers to the Danube ? To 
the March ? What nations early saw the importance of 
fortifying this *' Gateway of the West " against the enemy ? 
Trace all the roads which converge toward and diverge from 
both these gate cities. Name some important places from 
which they start and to which they go. Draw a sketch 
map of the Vienna gate with its continental crossways. 

Give the reasons for the establishment at Vienna of a 
Koman camp. Why should it have grown to be important 
enough as a military outpost to be visited by the em- 
peror ? Find out, if you can, what he was doing there ? 
How came the city to be demolished by the Huns ? Dur- 
ing one of the sieges by the Turks neighboring nations 
rallied to the defence of Vienna and delivered the city. 
State why yon think they were impelled to do this. 

Examine the small inset map for the exact location of 
Vienna. Describe its location. What is the character of 
the Danube here ? What difficulties beset navigation ? 
What dangers threaten the city ? What might be done to 
control the wandering course of the stream and to lessen 
danger from floods ? This the Viennese have done ; the 
river has been canalized, much marshy land reclaimed, and 
many old arms filled up. In which direction is the city 
spreading ? All these little villages are now a part of 
Greater Vienna and the streets radiate from the old town 



Outlines of Lessons 263 

out to the liills. What crossways does the city face ? 
From which direction has the greatest danger come ? 

Do yon think it likely that Vienna will continue to hold 
her own as an important capital of Europe ? Write your 
reason. Find out as many reasons as you can why the 
chief city of your State is located where it is. 



LESSONS IN PHYSICS IN LECTUKE FOKM 

TOPIC : EXPAiq'SIOi;r AKD CON^TRACTION Uiq^DER THE 
INFLUEl^CE OF HEAT 

Principle. — Solids, liquids, and gases expand when 
heated and contract when cooled. 

Aim. — To illustrate the above principle, in order that it 
may become firmly fixed in the mind of the pupil, and to 
show the vast importance of many of its applications to the 
affairs of daily life. 

Experiment. — 1. Provide yourself with two large 
screw-eyes, one of which will just pass through the other. 
Screw the shaft of each into a wooden handle. Show the 
class that the smaller screw-eye may be readily made to 
pass through the other, (a) Heat the smaller for some 
time in the flame of an alcohol lamp or a Bunsen burner, 
and again attempt to pass it through the opening of the 
larger. Ask the pupils to make a note of the results. 
{h) When the temperature has fallen to its former level, 
immerse the larger screw-eye in ice-water. Leave it there 
for some time. Then attempt the passage of the smaller 
piece as before. 

Ask the pupils to make a note of what happened and to 
draw a conclusion from the facts observed. 

2. Fill an air-thermometer nearly full of colored water. 



264 School Management 

so that the npper surface of the liquid rises to a point 
about half-way up the stem. Immerse the bulb in ice- 
water. Eepeat in water as hot as your hands can bear. 
Ask the pupils to note results and draw conclusions. 
Try various liquids. Make a note of the one in which the 
observed change is the greatest. 

3. Introduce a thread of mercury into the capillary 
stem of an air-thermometer in such a manner that its 
inner end shall stand about half-way down the tube. 
(a) Encircle the bulb with your warm hands, (b) Place 
the bulb in cold water, (c) Breathe upon it. (d) Cover 
it with a wet cloth and then blow upon it. Observations ? 
Conclusions ? 

Discussion. — Develop the following facts by a series 
of skilful questions : 

1. The general principle. 

2. Solids expand the least, gases the most. 

3. This principle may be made use of in various ways 
for construction of thermometers. Mercury is the most 
convenient material for this purpose, although alcohol, 
platinum, and air are better suited for certain special cases. 

Applications. — Fitting of tires to carriage-wheels. 
Shrinking of jackets upon government ordnances. Making 
of steam-tight joints in boiler-plates by means of red-hot 
rivets. Manufacturing of thermometers — mercury, alcohol, 
metal, air. 

Consequences. — Winds, ocean currents, cracks in 
chimneys, fractures of rocks under alternate heating and 
cooling of summer and winter. Allowances necessary in 
manufacture of bridges, steam-boilers, etc., for the "come 
and go.^^ 

Home Work. — Library — Coefficients by Expansion. 
Thermometers, Pyrometers, Disintegration of Eocks. 



Outiuies of Lessons 265 



topic: capillarity 

The rise of a liquid in a tube of small bore when the 
liquid wets it. 

Aim. — To arouse interest in the study of natural 
phenomena, stimulate the reasoning powers, and direct at- 
tention to an interesting application of a well-known prin- 
ciple to affairs of daily life. 

Preparation. — Half fill a tumbler with water colored 
red by a bit of aniline dye. Secure a half dozen glass 
tubes of capillary bore, the largest not over a millimetre in 
internal diameter, and rinse thoroughly in clear water. 

Experiment. — Dip one end of each pipe in turn into 
the colored liquid, keeping the tube in an upright posi- 
tion, and ask the pupils to observe what happens, taking 
especial pains to provide that all may be able to see clearly 
everything that goes on. 

Discussion. — Develop the following facts by a series of 
questions skilfully engineered with a view to enlisting 
the hearty co-operation of every member of the class. 

1. The height to which the liquid rises is dependent 
upon the bore of the tube, so that the smaller the bore the 
greater is the action, and vice versa. 

2. Similar phenomena may be noted when a lump of 
loaf-sugar is placed upon a drop of water, a damp sponge 
is used to wipe up a wet table, a blotter is employed to re- 
move superfluous ink, or a wick is provided to feed the 
flame of a kerosene lamp. 

Generalization. — The statement holds true that, in 
general, liquids rise in tubes of small bore when they wet 
them to a height dependent upon the bore of the tube, so 
that the smaller the tube the greater the rise. 

Practical Application. — The wooden posts that stand 



266 School Management 

upon a veranda platform supporting the roof above usually 
begin to show signs of decay first around the base where 
the post rests upon the platform. This is due to the fact 
that the rain-water creeps into the narrow crevice and is 
drawn up into the pores of the wood by capillary action, 
much as the sap ascends the tree, and rots the wood. This 
effect is guarded against by placing an iron shoe mounted 
upon four iron balls, like casters, under the post to enlarge 
the space beneath and thus destroy the capillary action. 

Home Work. — Place one end of a towel in a bowl of 
water, suspend the other one from a nail above, and note 
how long it takes for the water to wet the entire towel. 

Library Work. — Look up Capillarity, Imbibition, Else 
of Sap in Plants, How Plants get Water from the Soil, The 
Meniscus of Mercury in a Thermometer, The Decay of 
Eave Troughs and Wooden Joints in Outdoor Structures, 
The Depression of Liquid in a Tube when the Liquid does 
not Wet the Tube. 



A LESSON FOE THE LABOEATOEY 

TOPIC : ARCHIMIDES'S PRIIS'CIPLE 

A body immersed in a liquid is buoyed up by a force 
equal to the weight of the liquid displaced. 

Purpose. — Training in manipulation of apparatus. 
Development of doctrine of errors. Illustration of an 
important principle in physics. 

Apparatus. — A solid that will sink in water; an over- 
flow can ; a catch-bucket ; a spring-balance ; thread. 

Experiment. — (a) Weigh the solid in air. {h) Weigh 
it, suspended by the thread, entirely immersed in water. 
(c) Compute the loss of weight, {d) Fill the overflow can 



Outlines of Lessons 267 

full of water, catch what overflows through the i:>ipe and 
throw it away, (e) Place the bucket under the spout of 
the overflow can, carefully lower the solid, down into the 
latter and catch the overflow in the bucket, {f) Weigh 
the overflow. Compare the apparent loss of weight of the 
solid with the weight of the overflow, i.e., the displaced 
water. Conclusion ? If results do not come out as you 
think they should state what you regard as the most im- 
portant sources of errors. Hints : If the spring-balance is 
not held directly on a level with the eye an error parallax 
will be introduced. Great care should be taken that the 
various parts of the balance do not cramp each other. The 
overflow can may continue to drip too long. 

Discussion. — State clearly your method in manipula- 
tion of apparatus. Compute your percentage of error, and 
report. Tell what yon regard as the largest source of error, 
and suggest, if you can, some means of reducing this to a 
minimum. 

State in a single complete sentence the principle of 
Archimedes. 

Applications. — This principle is used in the launching 
of ships, the rise of balloons, the raising of ships from the 
bottom of the sea by means of submerged corks, etc. 

Library Work. — Archimedes and the Story of Hiero's 
Crown, Pontoon Bridges, Balloons, Cartesian Diver, Buoy- 
ancy, Equilibrium of Floating Bodies. 



268 School Management 

A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE BUSINESS 
ACTIVITIES CENTEING ABOUND WHEAT- 
EAISING 

The main purpose in this plan is to illustrate the five 
formal steps of the recitation, and at the same time to 
show how the stu.dy of arithmetic may be focussed upon 
problems that deal with real human interests. In other 
words, the problems are such as not only to afford practice 
in arithmetical processes, but also to yield results that 
have significance on their own account. 

No attempt has been made to exhaust the possibilities of 
the general topic. It would be easy to add problems on 
transportation, bread-making in the home and at the bak- 
ery, wholesale and retail grocery trade, and other commer- 
cial activities based upon wheat-raising. 

Statement of Aim. — Let us find out what kinds of 
business depend upon wheat-raising, and what the profits 
are in some of them. 

Preparation. — What are some of the most common 
and important uses of wheat to men ? 

Trace the steps by which wheat finally reaches you in 
the form of bread on your table. 

Presentation. — A farmer in Minnesota who raised 360 
acres of wheat this year (1903) reports that his land 
yielded fifteen bushels of wheat per acre, and that he sold 
his crop in July for 75 cents a bushel. He reports also 
that the cost per acre of raising and marketing his wheat 
was as follows : Seed wheat (IJ bushels), 11.00 ; plough- 
ing, $1.00 ; sowing, 65 cents; harvesting and stacking, 
11.75 ; threshing and marketing, $1.50. 

According to this report, what was this farmer's profit 
on his wheat crop ? [11,944.] 



Outlines of Lessons 269 

Many farmers in Minnesota rent land upon which to 
raise wheat. Good wheat land rents for $3.50 an acre per 
year. What would this farmer's profit have been if he had 
rented his land ? [1784.] How does this profit compare 
in amount with the profit of the farmer who owns his 
land ? How does it compare with the rent [$1,160] paid 
for the land ? 

A milling company near Minneapolis gives the follow- 
ing statement regarding one week's business in July, 1903 : 
" Our mill grinds 600 barrels of flour a day (that is, for a 
twenty-four hour run). "VVe paid for wheat during the 
week from 90 cents to 93 cents per bushel. Our average 
was 91 cents for No. 1 Northern spring wheat per bushel 
of 60 pounds. 

*' It takes 4^ bushels of wheat in our mill to manufacture 
a barrel of flour, weighing 196 pounds. Besides the flour 
produced, there are 25 pounds of shorts, 47 pounds of bran, 
and 2 pounds of invisible waste. 

" We received for the bran 114 per ton in bulk ; for the 
shorts, $16 per ton ; and for flour, $4.50 per barrel, in 
half- and quarter-barrel cotton sacks, at the mill. Our 
sacks cost us 4^ cents each for the quarters, and 6 J cents 
each for the halves. 

''We employ twenty-six people. This includes the mill 
men, manager, book-keeper, and other assistants. 

" Our profit for the week was $347.66. This is our net 
profit, after paying all wages, interest, insurance, taxes, 
and other expenses." 

From this study of the milling company, find how 
many bushels of wheat were ground each day. [2,700 bush- 
els.] How many pounds of wheat are ground to make a 
barrel of flour ? [270 pounds.] Find the total amount of 
flour, bran, and shorts produced by the mill in one week. 
What was the total amount received for the products of 



270 School Management 

one week ? [118,104.40.] Deducting the net profit, what 
was the total expense ? [117,756.74.] To whom did this 
amount go ? 

How do you account for the difference between the 
amount received by the farmer (75 cents per bushel) and 
the amount paid for wheat by the milling company (91 
cents per bushel) ? [Transportation, storage, and profits 
of middlemen.] Why was the milling company willing 
to pay the large dealers a higher price than that at which 
the farmer sold his wheat ? [It is a great convenience 
to have the grain collected, transported, and stored until 
it is needed.] 

In Chicago the large dealers in wheat and other kinds of 
grain have formed what is called the Board of Trade. The 
members meet every day in an immense hall to buy and 
sell grain and some other kinds of provisions, among 
themselves or for other dealers. [Other details may be 
added to give vividness to the idea.] 

In January, 1903, Harris & Thompson, a firm of 
dealers in the Board of Trade, bought of J. W. Elson 
200,000 bushels of wheat at 76 J cents a bushel. What was 
the total value of the wheat ? [1153,000.] The wheat 
was to be delivered in the following May. [This is called 
dealing in ''May wheat.^^] Harris & Thompson paid 
10^ down [margin] and agreed to pay the balance when 
the wheat was delivered in May. If the price of wheat in 
May should be higher than 76J cents a bushel, who would 
reap the advantage ? What would you say Harris & 
Thompson expected to occur to the price of wheat between 
January and May ? What did Elson expect ? [A dealer 
who buys because he expects the price to advance is called 
a " bull " ; one who sells because he expects the price to 
decline is called a '' bear."] 

In May the price of wheat had advanced to 78J cents 



Outlines of Lessons 271 

a bushel, and Harris & Thompson at once sold all the 
wheat they had bought of Elson. Find the profit of Harris 
& Thompson. [14,000.] Suppose the price of wheat had 
gone down to 75 1 cents a bushel, what would have been the 
loss to Harris & Thompson ? [12,000.] In what sense 
did Elson gain or lose in each case ? 

Comparison. — How long would the farm of 360 acres 
supply the mill with wheat for grinding ? [2 days.] How 
many such farms would be necessary to keep the flour-mill 
running constantly ? What was the profit of the mill on 
the flour produced from the amount of wheat raised by the 
farmer ? [$115.88.] How does the profit of the mill for 
one week compare with the profit of the farmer for the en- 
tire year ? [About one-fifth.] At this rate, how would the 
annual profit of the mill compare with that of the farmer ? 
[About ten times as great.] How do you account for this 
great difference in profit ? [The miller handles 150 times 
as much wheat as the farmer.] 

How does the amount of wheat handled by Harris & 
Thompson in their one trade with Elson compare with 
that handled in a year by the farmer and in five months 
by the milling company ? How do the profits compare ? 

Generalization. — From the results of these compari- 
sons, what would you say is one of the large influences in 
determining the amount of profit in business ? [The scale 
on which the business is carried on.] 

Large profit is usually the result of a large amount of 
business. 

Application. — What besides business ability is needed 
to carry on a large business ? [Capital.] How is capital 
accumulated ? [By saving.] What advantage, then, is 
there in making a practice of saving a part of one's income 
or profit ? 

[Further application may be found in a study of the 



272 School Management 

volume of business and the profits of some of the large 
railroad companies and of the great industrial corporations. 
The financial statements of many of these appear regularly 
in the daily papers of large cities.] 



LESSON ON THE STAMP ACT 

(as a type of the causes of the revolutiojstary 
war) 

Statement of Aim. — Let us consider how England 
proposed to tax the American colonies and what came 
of it. 

Preparation. — What territory had England lately added 
to her American possessions ? [Canada and the eastern 
Mississippi Valley,] 

How had this territory been acquired? [By war with 
France.] To what extent had this war been carried on in 
the interest of the colonies ? What part had the colonies 
taken in it ? 

What are some of the things that make the cost of war 
very great ? What reasons can you give why England might 
reasonably have expected the colonies to bear part of the 
cost of the French and Indian War? What further ex- 
pense would arise in providing for the defence of the 
colonies and of the new territory ? 

How do governments get the money to pay the cost of 
wars, public buildings, and other necessary things ? Who 
pays the expenses of the schools, of the fire department, 
and of other departments in your city? How did the 
United States raise money to pay the expenses of the Span- 
ish War? [Taxes on bank checks, telegrams, and legal 
documents ; and extra taxes on beer and other things.] Do 



Outlines of Lessons 273 

you remember the stamps that were used ? [Show some of 
the documentary stamps.] Did we object to buying and 
using these stamps ? Why not ? 

Presentation. — In what different ways might England 
have secured money from the colonies ? 

The first plan proposed by Parliament in 1765 was a 
stamp tax very similar to that adopted by the United States 
after the Spanish War. [Show pictures of the stamps.] 
According to the Stamp Act passed by Parliament these 
stamps, costing all the way from a half -penny (one cent) 
to ten pounds (fifty dollars), were to be placed on all im- 
portant law and business documents, on newspapers and 
other printed matter. [Have extracts from the Stamp Act 
read in class.] 

What are the advantages of raising money by the use of 
stamps ? Why, probably, did Parliament take this means 
of getting money from the colonies rather than depend 
upon voluntary contributions voted by the colonial as- 
semblies as she had done before ? Why should some mem- 
bers of Parliament strongly oppose the Stamp Act ? [Read 
Barrels speech in Parliament.] 

Were the Americans as truly Englishmen as if they had 
been living in England ? What reasons might they give, 
then, for being indignant at the enactment of the Stamp 
Act ? In what ways could they show their indignation 
publicly ? [Assign for reading selections from the speeches 
of James Otis, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry, and an 
account of the Stamp Act Congress.] 

Why should a stronger effect be produced by a complaint 
made to England by a congress of representatives of several 
colonies than one made by the various colonies separately ? 

State briefly the principal rights that the Americans in- 
sisted upon and the chief grievances of which they com- 
plained. [There is an excellent opportunity to introduce 



274 School Management 

dramatic action here and to secure a vital review of the 
main ideas by having the pupils represent in their own 
way the Stamp Act Congress, introducing the '^ Declara- 
tion of Rights and Grievances/' arguing the points, and 
finally signing the Declaration.] 

Why did the people of the colonies say that Parliament 
did not represent them ? Who did represent them ? 

In what ways could the colonies resist the Stamp Act ? 
[Assign for reading accounts of the " Sons of Liberty, '' 
destruction of stamps, and non-importation agreements.] 

Why were the Americans called " Sons of Liberty " ? 
How could the non-importation agreements injure Eng- 
land ? What class of men in England would they affect 
most seriously ? Why should the merchants and manu- 
facturers of England object to the Stamp Act ? What 
influence would their objections, added to the indignation 
expressed by the colonies, be apt to have on Parliament ? 
[Assign for reading reprinted extracts from Boston and 
London papers giving an account of the repeal of the 
Stamp Act, 1766.] 

A few months after repealing the Stamp Act, Parliament 
passed an act declaring that it had the right to tax the 
colonies "in all cases whatsoever.^' For what reasons 
probably did Parliament pass this act ? What does the 
passing of this act show us concerning the real feeling 
between Parliament and the colonies ? 

Comparison. — Were the colonies related to England 
at all as the various States are related to the United States ? 
If the colonies had no objection to the amount of money 
that they would have to pay for stamps, why should they 
not have been as willing to use the stamps as we are to use 
postage-stamps or the Spanish War stamps ? If you were 
a member of a club or society but were not allowed to vote 
or take any active part in its meetings, what objections 



Outlines of Lessons 275 

might you raise to some things the society might vote 
to do? 

Generalization. — As a member of the club or society, 
how would you state your objection in the briefest possible 
way ? Can you state the complaint of the colonies in a 
similar way ? Their statement of the case was that they 
complained of " taxation without representation." 

Application. — [One of the main fields for the applica- 
tion of this general truth is in the further study of the 
causes of the Revolutionary War.] 

Is a person truly represented when he votes for a man 
for any ofl&ce, knowing little or nothing about his char- 
acter or his opinions ? Why do many men value so 
slightly the privilege to which their forefathers in the 
colonies attached such great importance ? What can a 
man do to make sure that he is properly represented in his 
own government ? [Take an active interest in the nomi- 
nation and election of officers.] 



276 School Management 



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278 School Management 

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